Québec's commission on screens and youth: what it proposed, and what is now in force

Who the commission was and what it studied

In June 2024, the Assemblée nationale voted unanimously to create a special commission on the impacts of screens and social media on young people's health and development. Twelve members from every party sat on it.

It held hearings and met over many work sessions. On May 29, 2025, it tabled its final report with 56 recommendations. They cover four big areas: screen time, screens at school, the minimum age for social media, and how social networks and video games are designed.

A recommendation is advice to the government. It only becomes a rule when the government or the Assemblée acts on it. That is the key thing to keep in mind when you hear about the report.

In force: phones out of the school day

This is the one recommendation that has clearly become a rule. The commission first raised it in an interim report in April 2025, then confirmed it in the final report.

Since the 2025-2026 school year, the government's rule bans phones, earbuds and other personal mobile devices for the whole school day, including breaks and lunch, on school grounds. It applies to public and private primary and secondary schools. It builds on a classroom-only ban that started in early 2024.

There are limited exceptions, for example when a teacher uses a device for a learning activity, or for a student's health or particular needs. Each school sets its own way of applying the rule. Our school phone ban explainer covers the details for families.

Still a recommendation: a digital majority at 14

The commission proposed that young people under 14 should not be able to open a social media account without a parent's consent. Its chair explained that 14 lines up with other things a young person can do alone in Québec, like working or consulting a doctor.

This is not law. As of our last check, no Québec bill setting a digital majority had been adopted, and a spring 2026 report noted it did not appear to be on the government's agenda. In 2026, Ottawa and several provinces were also discussing age limits of their own, at 16. Those are proposals too, until a law is passed.

In practice, today the age limits your child meets are the platforms' own age rules and the settings you choose together.

Still recommendations: game and app design

The commission looked hard at how apps and games are built to keep kids using them. It recommended:

• a ban on paid loot boxes (random rewards you pay for) and microtransactions in video games for minors
• that a body such as the INSPQ classify design features that are inappropriate for minors, such as infinite scroll and endless feeds

These are not law in Québec. Many games are made outside the province, so rules like these would likely need to work with federal or international measures. For now, the tools you have are the purchase controls on your child's console, phone or app store, and a family rule about spending. Our guide to money in games can help.

In progress: screen-time guidelines from the INSPQ

The commission asked the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) to write progressive screen-time guidelines by stage of development, and the government to run a campaign so parents know about them. The INSPQ's own earlier work supports guidelines that change with age and take different devices and platforms into account.

In July 2026, the government said it was continuing to put the recommendations in place, with a new initiative to support parents, and that the health ministry was working on several of them through its public health plans. As of our last check, the age-based guidelines themselves had not been published. When they are, we will update this page.

What this means for your family

The report is good news in one way: it puts the weight on schools, platforms and game makers, not only on parents. Experts broadly welcomed it.

You don't need to wait for new laws to act on its spirit. Most families already do some version of this: a plan for when and where screens are used, phones out of bedrooms at night, and a talk about spending in games. Our family media plan guide is a calm place to start.