Recommended Screen Time by Age: What the Experts Say (2026 Guide)

Ask three experts how much screen time a child should have and you will get three answers, because the honest answer depends on what is on the screen, what it is replacing, and how old the child is. That said, many health bodies broadly agree on this version of screen time advice, and it is more useful than the “two hours a day” rule most parents half-remember.

Here is what they recommend, age by age, and how to turn it into something your family can follow.

Who sets the guidelines?

• The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) publishes the most widely quoted advice. It gives firm limits for under-5s and asks families to set their own consistent limits for school-age children, using a family media plan.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) published guidelines in 2019 for under-5s, focused on sedentary screen time, with a strong “less is better” message.
• The UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) deliberately does not set a number. Its 2019 guidance says the evidence for a specific cut-off is weak, and asks families to judge screen time by whether it is getting in the way of sleep, exercise, family time and school.

The practical reading: firm limits for babies and pre-schoolers, and for everyone older, limits based on what screens are displacing rather than a magic number.

Under 18 months

AAP and WHO: no screen time, apart from video calls with family. Babies cannot learn from screens the way they learn from faces, and background television reduces the amount parents talk to them. If you need ten minutes to make dinner, a screen will not harm a baby, but it should be the exception rather than the routine.

18 to 24 months

AAP: if you introduce screens, choose high-quality programmes and watch together. Toddlers learn from video when an adult is narrating and connecting it to real life (“that’s a dog, like Grandma’s dog”), and barely at all when they watch alone. WHO: none for under-2s.

2 to 5 years

AAP: up to one hour a day of high-quality content, co-viewed where possible. WHO: no more than one hour, and less is better. At this age the biggest risk is displacement: an hour of screens is an hour not spent moving, talking and playing, which is how pre-schoolers learn. Keep screens out of the hour before bed and off during meals.

6 to 12 years

AAP: no fixed number. Set consistent limits that make sure screens do not crowd out sleep (9 to 12 hours), physical activity (at least an hour), homework and face-to-face time. Most families land somewhere between one and two hours of entertainment screen time on school days, more at weekends. Screen use for schoolwork is counted separately.

This is the age where the type of screen time starts to matter more than the amount. Thirty minutes of a coding game and thirty minutes of Shorts are not equivalent, and a limit that treats them the same will feel arbitrary to your child, because it is.

13 to 17 years

AAP: same principle, and the evidence here is mostly about sleep and social media. Teenagers who keep phones in the bedroom overnight sleep less, and heavy social media use is linked with poorer mood in some teens, particularly girls. The most effective rules at this age are about where and when rather than how long: no phones in bedrooms overnight, none at the table, and a cut-off an hour before bed.

A simple rule that works at every age

The RCPCH asks four questions, and they are a better test than any number:

1. Is screen time controlled in your house, or does it control you?
2. Does it interfere with what your family wants to do?
3. Does it interfere with sleep?
4. Can your child stop snacking during screen time?

If you can answer those well, you are probably fine, whatever the total. If you cannot, the total is too high for your child, even if it is below the guideline.

Turning guidelines into a routine

The gap between knowing the guidance and living it is enforcement. A limit that depends on a parent noticing the time, deciding to intervene, and surviving the argument gets applied inconsistently, and inconsistent limits teach children that limits are negotiable.

Three things make enforcement easier:

• Use device controls, not willpower. Screen Time on iPhone and Family Link on Android turn the limit into a fact rather than a request.
• Separate learning from entertainment. Give educational apps their own allowance, so a child doing their reading practice is not burning their game time.
• Put learning first. Applatch Kids locks games and video until your child has finished a short, age-matched quiz for the day. The guideline stays the same, but the first part of the screen time is always spent on something worthwhile, and the child feels they have earned the rest rather than had it rationed

Frequently asked questions

Does educational screen time count towards the limit? The AAP treats schoolwork separately and counts “high-quality” content as part of the under-5 hour. For older children, most paediatricians suggest counting entertainment time strictly and being more relaxed about learning time.

What is the recommended screen time for a 7-year-old? There is no official number. One to two hours of entertainment screen time on school days is a common family limit, with sleep, activity and homework protected first.

Is two hours a day too much? Not necessarily. Two hours of a mix of games, video calls and a learning app, with ten hours of sleep and an active day, is fine. Two hours of autoplay video at bedtime is not.

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