Welcome to Canada’s 1st
Digital Wellbeing Hub
Logo by: Marynil Munoz
Built alongside Canadian youth and grounded in research -
For everyone who cares about
digital wellbeing.
On the Hub, you'll find different ways to learn about digital wellbeing.
We use UNICEF-Canada's Index of Youth and Child Well-being as a framework to explore how digital technology is impacting Canadians across 9 dimensions of wellbeing.
As you click into each dimension, you'll find:
🎥 Digital Portraits – Short videos where young people across Canada share honest reflections on their digital lives.
🔗 Trusted Resources – A curated collection of tools and reports from trusted research centres and organizations.
📚 Research Snapshots – Bite-sized summaries of academic studies exploring the impact of digital tech on youth wellbeing.
Explore by Wellbeing Dimension
All youth deserve to feel valued, loved, and treated with dignity in all spaces.
ExploreYouth grow best when learning is meaningful, empowering, and accessible.
ExploreHealth includes emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing.
ExplorePlay is joy, imagination, rest, and a right—not a privilege.
ExploreYoung people deserve real power in decisions that impact their lives.
ExploreDigital spaces should protect youth rights and reduce harm—not amplify it.
ExplorePlanetary wellbeing and youth wellbeing are deeply interconnected.
ExploreSecurity means freedom from violence, stress, and economic pressure.
Explore
UNICEF Canada’s Index of Child and Youth Wellbeing:
Built with and for young people across Canada, the Index offers a holistic picture of what wellbeing looks and feels like to them. Grounded in the Rights of the Child and an ecological systems approach, it tracks how young people are doing across 9 interconnected dimensions of life. It helps assess “the kinds of childhoods our society offers its children,” and guides action to address challenges.
—UNICEF Canada Baseline Report, 2019
How it all began
The Digital Wellbeing Hub grew from real conversations with young people across Canada. Building on decades of research alongside youth at the Young Lives Research Lab, we co-launched a national study with UNICEF Canada, the Students Commission of Canada, and an 11-person Youth Advisory Committee to guide the work. Using the Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-being as a framework, we interviewed youth across the country and analyzed existing research. We created this Hub to share what we've learned so far. As the work continues, so will this space, growing with new insights, voices, and ideas.
Photo by Young Lives Research Lab
“Children and youth live in blended worlds; there is not much of an online/offline dichotomy. Learning music or math often takes place through integrated online and offline experiences. Both friendships and bullying can start and follow young people online and offline, often involving the same people they see in person and on screen. The indicators in the Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-being are status indicators that can be more or less influenced by young people’s engagement with digital technology and content, and by many other factors.”
“There is no official definition of well-being. Different individuals, cultures, communities and age groups have different concepts and experiences of well-being. They have different goals and values. All citizens, including children, have the right to define what well-being means to them, their community and their society.”
“Wellbeing in a digital world means the processes and pathways for accessing the benefits of digital participation, in ways that manage risks and maximise opportunities to us all. Wellbeing in a digital world includes the relationships between digital participation and developmental, emotional, physical, and social wellbeing.”