Like McDonald’s throwing money at nutrition research, Rogers is now looking to clean up a mess it’s helped make.
What happened: Rogers will spend $50 million over the next five years as part of a national school program aimed at curbing kids' screen time. The telecom will finance grants that incentivize physical activity and will run annual studies looking at students' screen activity.
The company will also bring star athletes into schools to spread the message. Maybe George Springer telling a fifth-grader to spend less time on their iPad will do the trick.
Why it’s happening: More research has found that kids spending too much time on devices has a direct correlation to worse mental health, sleep, and performance in school.
A recent SickKids study that examined Canadian kids over 15 years determined that for every additional hour of screen time, students’ odds of meeting reading and math standards dropped 10%.
Why it matters: A PSA from Rogers is unlikely to sway too many kids, but this program is a pretty damning acknowledgment — from a company that directly profits from Canadians spending more time online — that too much screen time can be genuinely harmful.
Zoom out: New ideas are being trialled around the world to tackle excessive screen time. Australia just banned social media for kids under 16, while China is looking to limit kids to two hours of phone use a day. In Canada, most provinces have rolled out a cellphone ban in schools, while Quebec has considered a similar social media ban for kids under 16.—LA