Are we driving our kids to unhealthy habits? That’s the question a new report asks as it details how Canadian children today are much more likely to be driven to school and activities than in generations past.

The 2013 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card found that only 28 per cent of kids walk to school, down from 58 per cent when their parents were the same age.

The report also found that kids walk for an average of 11 minutes each day, and a mere five per cent of five-to-17-year-olds meet the Canadian physical activity requirements.

Kelly Murumets, president and CEO of ParticipAction, said schoolchildren can add 20 to 30 minutes of physical activity by walking or wheeling to and from school. This would bring kids closer to the daily 60-minute total recommended by the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology.

Safety is one concern for parents in Vancouver who prefer to drive their kids to school, especially if they live farther away from the facility. One mother who spoke to CTV British Columbia said she will wait until her child is out of elementary school before they can walk to school.

“I prefer if she can do that in high school,” she said. “But in elementary school, no.”

Murumets said technology is another clear factor in the drop in physical activity between generations.

“Our kids more and more are on screens, and not outdoors just playing and being kids,” she said.

Dr. Art Quinney, an exercise physiologist at the University of Alberta, said children’s limited activity sets the stage for a myriad of health problems later in life.

“[It’s]a legacy of chronic conditions obesity, diabetes, heart disease coming far earlier in their lives then they should,” he said.

To avoid health concerns later in life, the report suggests that parents encourage children to walk to nearby destinations, share supervision duty walking younger kids to school, and park the car further from the school when walking is not possible.

It could be worse though; provincial comparisons found that children in B.C. have the highest level of active transportation across Canada.

Extended: Read the report here