How much screen time is reasonable?
Quick answer
About 1 hour a day
For ages 2 to 5. Under 2, avoid screens other than video chat. From 6 up there is no official figure.
For under 2, the guidance is to avoid screens other than video chatting with family. For ages 2 to 5, about an hour a day of high-quality programming, ideally watched with you. From 6 upward there is no official hour figure at all: the recommendation shifts to consistent limits that protect sleep, physical activity, school, and meals. In practice, most families do better setting the boundaries around when and where than arguing about a total.
What to consider
- What the screen is replacing
- An hour instead of sleep is a different thing from an hour instead of being bored. Displacement matters more than duration.
- What kind of use it is
- Homework, a video call with a grandparent, and an endless recommendation feed are not the same activity and do not deserve the same budget.
- When, not just how much
- Screens close to bedtime and screens in bedrooms cause most of the practical problems. Those two rules do more work than any hour limit.
- Whether the rule survives a normal week
- A limit you suspend whenever you are busy is not a limit. A slightly more generous rule you actually hold is worth more.
- Your own use
- This is uncomfortable but real. Household norms are set by what everyone does, not by what children are told.
The numbers
Under 18 to 24 months
Avoid, other than video chat
Video chatting with family is treated as an exception because it is interactive.
Published source American Academy of Pediatrics
Ages 2 to 5
About 1 hour a day of high-quality programming
Watching together is part of the recommendation, not an optional extra.
Published source American Academy of Pediatrics
Ages 6 and up
No official hour figure
The guidance is consistent limits that keep sleep, activity, and schoolwork intact, rather than a number. Anyone quoting a precise official hourly limit for this age is overstating what exists.
Published source American Academy of Pediatrics
What children actually do
Typically several hours a day of recreational use, rising sharply in the teens
Reported usage is consistently well above any recommended ceiling. This is context for setting expectations, not a target.
Published source Common Sense Media
Your options
Work out your number
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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Your action plan
Do firstThis week
- Pick two hard rules rather than a number: no devices in bedrooms overnight, and none in the last hour before bed.
- Choose one screen-free time everyone keeps, such as meals.
- Set up a charging spot outside bedrooms tonight.
- Tell your child the rules apply to you as well, then keep to them.
ThenNext month
- Check whether bedtime actually improved, which is the point.
- If the rules are being broken constantly, simplify to one rule rather than adding enforcement.
- Look at what the screen time is displacing, and replace that specifically.
Keep an eye onWatch for
- Sleep getting shorter or later, which is the most reliable warning sign.
- Screens becoming the only reward and the only punishment.
- Arguing about totals while devices stay in bedrooms overnight, which is the rule that actually matters.
- Rules that apply only to children, which teenagers correctly identify as unfair.
Dad did the math.papacalcs.com
You know what to do.
Now here’s the system to actually do it.
One repeatable system for the everyday running of your household, so you stop re-deciding the same things every morning. Screen rules are one part of it.
Family Command Center
Turn everyday family chaos into a system that actually works.
Recommended here because you are working on technology.
- For
- Ages 3 to 12
- The problem
- Routines, chores, schedules, and responsibilities are hard to keep consistent.
- What changes
- Run mornings, homework and bedtime from a routine instead of from memory
- Give every household job an owner, so it stops being your job to remember
- Keep a weekly plan that survives a bad week
Common questions
Is there an official screen time limit for a 10-year-old?
No. Specific hourly limits exist only for under-5s. From 6 upward the guidance is about consistent limits protecting sleep, activity, and school, not a number of hours.
Does homework on a laptop count?
Not usefully. Counting it makes the limit meaningless. Budget recreational use separately.
What is the single most effective rule?
Devices charge outside bedrooms overnight. It protects sleep, and it removes the situation that causes most of the difficult moments.
Where these numbers come from
- Last reviewed
- October 1, 2026
- Geography
- United States
-
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.
Where to go next
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Because most of the morning is decisions, and decisions are slow. Mornings go wrong when clothes, breakfast, and bag-packing are all being worked out…