Calculator
Set your child’s age to see the suggested recreational ceiling alongside what children that age typically do. The gap between the two is usually the interesting part.
Suggested maximum, school day
2 hrs
an 8-year-old, school day
Typical usage at this age runs about 2.5 hrs over the suggested ceiling.
What this means
There is no official hourly limit at this age. About 2 hours of recreational screens on school days is a practical planning ceiling, with consistent limits that protect sleep, activity and school.
Figures for under 6 follow American Academy of Pediatrics guidance. Above age 6 there is no official hourly limit: the figures shown are our planning ceiling, and the actual recommendation is consistent limits protecting sleep, activity, and school. Typical usage figures are rounded approximations of reported behaviour, and are not a target.
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Above age 6 there is no official hourly limit. The figures shown for older children are a practical planning ceiling, not a published standard, and the guidance itself is about protecting sleep, activity, and schoolwork rather than counting hours.
Typical usage runs well above any suggested ceiling at every age. That is context for setting realistic expectations, not a target to aim at.
If you change only one thing, make it where devices spend the night. That single rule does more than any hourly limit.
The decision page walks through what to consider, your options, and a plan for this week.
How much screen time is reasonable?Media and Young Minds, and the Family Media Plan guidance
American Academy of Pediatrics · United States
Source of the age bands: avoid screens other than video chat under 18 to 24 months, and about one hour a day of high-quality programming for ages 2 to 5. No hourly figure exists for older children.
The Common Sense Census: media use by tweens and teens
Common Sense Media · United States
Basis of the "typical usage" figures, which describe what children actually do rather than what is recommended. Our bands are rounded approximations of the reported figures.
No. Specific hourly recommendations exist only for children under 6. Above that, the guidance is about consistent limits that protect sleep, physical activity, and school, not a number of hours.
Not here. Counting schoolwork makes any limit meaningless. This covers recreational use only.
Devices charge outside bedrooms overnight. It protects sleep and removes the situation that causes most late-night conflict.
You have the number.
The calculator gives you the figure. This is for the part that has to happen every week afterwards.
Turn everyday family chaos into a system that actually works.