What’s Addictive in Your Teen’s World? The Changing Face of Youth Addiction

Image courtesy of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

When we talk about teen addiction, most parents immediately think about drugs and alcohol.

But the world our teenagers are growing up in has changed—and so has the landscape of potentially addictive behaviour.

The findings released last week (August 2026) from the 2025 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS), conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), offer a striking snapshot of what is happening among Ontario students in Grades 7–12.

The survey found that 25% of students spend five or more hours a day on social media, while 78% spend three or more hours a day on electronic screens during their free time. Online gambling is also rising sharply: 12% reported gambling online in the past year, up from 8% in 2023. Even more striking, online sports betting increased from 1% in 2019 to 10% in 2025. Nearly one-quarter of students—23%—reported seeing online gambling advertisements every day. (CAMH)

These numbers deserve our attention.

But they also require some nuance.

Not every teenager who spends hours gaming, scrolling or watching videos has an addiction.

The number of hours alone doesn’t tell us whether a behaviour has become problematic.

The more important question is: What is the behaviour doing in your teen’s life?

When screen time becomes more than screen time

Screens are not inherently bad.

Social media can provide connection. Gaming can provide creativity, achievement and community. Technology is an unavoidable part of school, friendships and everyday life.

The concern begins when technology starts to take more than it gives.

Is your teenager staying up late because they can’t stop scrolling?

Are they becoming increasingly isolated from family and friends?

Are school, sleep, exercise or other interests being pushed aside?

Do they become extremely distressed or angry when asked to put the device away?

Are they using gaming, social media or their phone primarily to escape difficult emotions?

These questions tell us much more than a screen-time number.

CAMH’s 2025 findings show that recreational screen use and heavy social media use have increased substantially compared with when these measures were first tracked. At the same time, students who spend more time on social media are more likely to report poorer mental health. (CAMH)

That doesn’t necessarily mean the screen caused the distress.

It may mean that the relationship between the two is more complicated.

A young person who is lonely, anxious, overwhelmed or struggling to cope may turn to their screen for relief. And the more relief they experience there, the harder it can become to step away.

The behaviour may be the solution your teen has found—not the problem you need to punish.

Gaming: when play becomes a problem

Gaming can be a healthy form of recreation. For many young people, it is also a social world where friendships are formed and maintained.

But gaming can become problematic when it begins to interfere with the rest of a young person’s life.

The 2025 OSDUHS specifically tracks video gaming and related problems, and the survey also examined whether students spend money while gaming. (CAMH)

And increasingly, the lines between gaming and gambling can become blurred.

Loot boxes, randomized rewards, skins betting and other monetized features can introduce elements of chance and financial risk into games that young people may not think of as gambling.

This matters because early exposure can normalize gambling behaviours and make them feel like an ordinary part of digital entertainment. CAMH has previously highlighted the increasingly blurred relationship between gaming and gambling among young people. (CAMH)

Gambling is no longer something that happens in a casino

Perhaps one of the most concerning findings in the 2025 survey is the rapid growth of online gambling.

For today’s teenagers, gambling can appear on a phone while watching a sporting event, playing a game or scrolling through social media.

And the advertising is everywhere.

Ten per cent of Ontario students reported online sports betting in 2025, compared with just 1% in 2019.

That is a tenfold increase.

At the same time, 23% reported seeing online gambling advertisements every day. (CAMH)

For parents, this is worth paying attention to because gambling is increasingly being presented not as a risky behaviour, but as entertainment.

It can look like sports.

It can look like a game.

It can look like a bonus.

It can look like a harmless bet between friends.

And because it is accessible through a device, the distance between wanting to gamble and being able to gamble has become much smaller.

So what should parents be looking for?

Rather than focusing only on whether your teen is using a particular app, playing a particular game or spending a particular number of hours online, look at impact and function.

Ask yourself:

• Is my teen still able to stop when they need to?

• Is their sleep being affected?

• Are school responsibilities slipping?

• Are they withdrawing from family or offline friendships?

• Has something they used to enjoy been replaced almost entirely by the screen?

• Does the behaviour seem to be their primary way of coping?

• Are they becoming secretive about their online activity or spending?

• Does limiting access result in intense distress?

• Are they continuing despite clear negative consequences?

And perhaps most importantly:

What happens when the screen goes away?

Sometimes what we see when the device is removed gives us important information about what the device has been helping the young person avoid, manage or regulate.

Connection before control

When parents are frightened, frustrated or exhausted, the natural response can be to take the phone away.

Sometimes boundaries are absolutely necessary.

But control alone rarely addresses the reason the behaviour has become so compelling.

If your teenager is using gaming to escape anxiety, taking away the game doesn’t make the anxiety disappear.

If social media has become their primary source of belonging, removing their phone doesn’t automatically create connection.

If gambling provides excitement, relief or a sense of possibility, simply saying “Don’t do it” doesn’t address what they are getting from it.

This is why understanding comes before effective intervention.

It doesn’t mean there should be no limits.

It means that boundaries work best when they are paired with curiosity, connection and support.

Instead of only asking: “How do I get my teen off their phone?”

Try asking: “What is my teen getting from their phone that they may not be getting somewhere else?”

That question can open a very different conversation.

The bigger picture

One of the most interesting things about the 2025 OSDUHS findings is that while some forms of traditional substance use among Ontario students continue to decline, other concerns are emerging around technology, gaming, social media and gambling. (CAMH)

This doesn’t mean addiction has disappeared.

It means we need to broaden the conversation.

Addiction isn’t simply about a substance.

At its core, it can involve a pattern of behaviour that becomes increasingly difficult to control and increasingly important for managing how we feel.

For parents, the goal isn’t to become the police of every screen, app or activity. It is to stay connected enough to notice when something has changed—and curious enough to ask why.

Because sometimes the behaviour that worries us most is also telling us something important about what our teenager is struggling with.

The behaviour is communicating. Our job is to learn how to listen.

The 2025 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey was conducted by CAMH and included 11,108 students in Grades 7–12 from 246 schools across 42 school boards in Ontario. The survey has been conducted every two years since 1977 and is Canada’s longest-running ongoing school survey of adolescents. (CAMH)

Susan Raphael is an internationally certified addiction and mental health clinician, author, speaker, and media commentator with more than 20 years of experience. Founder of Sustainable Recovery and author of What’s Wrong with My Teen?, she brings both clinical expertise and lived experience to conversations about addiction, mental health, youth, families, and recovery.

Subsequent images generated by AI.