Screen Time Recommendations by Age: What the US, UK, Canada, Australia and WHO Say in 2026
Official screen time guidance by age from the AAP, the UK government, Canada, Australia and WHO. They agree on under-5s and split on older children.
For under-2s, every major guideline says to avoid screens apart from video calls or shared activities with an adult. For ages 2 to 5, the UK, Canada, Australia and WHO all set a limit of about one hour a day. For school-age children they split. Canada and Australia recommend no more than two hours a day of recreational screen time, while the American Academy of Pediatrics, in its January 2026 policy, and the UK government focus on how screens are used rather than a fixed number of hours.
"How much screen time is OK?" gets different answers depending on which country's website you land on. Some give a number, some refuse to, and many parenting sites still quote guidance that has since been replaced.
This page sets out what the official bodies in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia say, and what the World Health Organization says, as of September 2026. They agree more than it seems for young children, and genuinely disagree for older ones.
At a glance
| Age | UK government (2026) | Canada (CPS / CSEP) | Australia | WHO (2019) | US (AAP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 2 | Avoid, except shared activities such as video calls | Not recommended, except video-chatting with caring adults | Not recommended | Under 1: not recommended. Age 1: not recommended | See below |
| 2 to 5 | No more than 1 hour a day, in short chunks | About 1 hour or less a day | No more than 1 hour a day | Age 2 to 4: no more than 1 hour, less is better | See below |
| 5 to 17 | Guidance due autumn 2026 | No more than 2 hours a day of recreational screen time | No more than 2 hours a day of recreational screen time | Not covered | No fixed hour limit |
"Recreational" means screen time for leisure. Schoolwork is not counted.
Under 2: close to a consensus
Every body that gives a number for babies and toddlers says roughly the same thing: avoid screens, with an exception for real interaction with a person.
- UK: the government's guidance for under-5s, published on 27 March 2026, advises avoiding screen time for under-2s except shared activities that support family bonding and learning. Examples include video calling relatives, looking at family photos or reading e-books together.
- Canada: the Canadian Paediatric Society's statement, published in 2023, says screen time is not recommended under 2, apart from video-chatting with caring adults.
- Australia: sedentary screen time is not recommended for children younger than 2.
- WHO: screen time is not recommended for infants under 1, and sedentary screen time is not recommended at age 1.
The reasoning is the same across them. Babies and toddlers learn language and attention through back-and-forth with people, and there is little evidence that screens teach them anything a person would not teach better.
Ages 2 to 5: about an hour a day
This is where the agreement is strongest. The UK, Canada, Australia and WHO all land on about one hour a day or less:
- UK (2026): no more than an hour a day, ideally in short chunks of 30 minutes or less, not at mealtimes or near bedtime, and keep solo screen use to a minimum. The expert group behind it said the evidence on exact time thresholds is very limited, so the limit is precautionary.
- Canada (2023): limit routine or sedentary screen time to about 1 hour or less a day, and avoid screens for at least an hour before bedtime.
- Australia: no more than 1 hour a day; less is better.
- WHO (2019): no more than 1 hour a day for 2- to 4-year-olds; less is better.
All of them care as much about what and how as about minutes. They favour slow-paced, age-appropriate content and watching together with a child. The UK guidance specifically warns against fast-paced, social-media-style videos for young children.
School-age children and teens: the split
For ages 5 to 17, the guidance divides into two approaches.
A number. Canada's 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for ages 5 to 17 and Australia's guidelines both recommend no more than two hours a day of recreational screen time. Schoolwork is not included.
No number. The American Academy of Pediatrics published a new policy statement, Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents, on 20 January 2026. It argues that "media and children" "cannot be viewed solely through the lens of individual child behaviors or screen limits alone". Its guidance for families centres on:
- a family media plan;
- using media together and talking about it;
- device-free times and places, such as dinnertime, the car and weekends;
- parents modelling the habits they want to see.
It also puts responsibility on technology companies and policymakers to design products with children's development in mind.
The UK government announced guidance for 5- to 16-year-olds in June 2026. It said the guidance would avoid blanket rules and would be published in the autumn. Until then, the UK has no official hour limit for this age group.
Many parenting sites still quote the AAP's 2016 figures, such as one hour a day for ages 2 to 5 and avoiding screens under 18 months apart from video chat. Those came from a statement for under-5s that the 2026 policy updates.
What every guideline agrees on
Whatever the number, the same points come up in every document:
- Protect sleep. No screens in the hour before bed, and keep devices out of bedrooms. Our article on child sleep and screens explains why this is the single change most worth making.
- Keep screen-free times. Family meals are the one every guideline names.
- Watch together when children are young. Talking about what is on screen turns passive viewing into interaction.
- Choose the content. Slow, age-appropriate programmes beat fast, autoplaying feeds.
- Model it. Children copy the adults around them.
Why the guidelines differ
Most of the evidence behind hour limits is observational. It shows that heavy screen use goes with less sleep, less physical activity and less face-to-face time, more than it shows a precise safe threshold. The UK's expert group said directly that it found no single threshold above which harm occurs. It found little evidence of harm below an hour a day for children aged 2 and over.
Bodies that give a number are using it as a practical, precautionary line. Bodies that avoid one are betting that families do better with principles than with a timer. Both approaches are defensible. Our article on screen time and what the evidence supports goes into the research itself.
Sources
- Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care (27 March 2026). Screen use by children aged under 5, including the Early Years Screen Time Advisory Group report.
- GOV.UK (8 June 2026). New guidance on screen use for children aged 5–16.
- Munzer, T., et al. (2026). Digital ecosystems, children, and adolescents: Policy statement. Pediatrics. American Academy of Pediatrics. doi.org/10.1542/peds.2025-075320
- Council on Communications and Media (2016). Media and young minds. Pediatrics, 138(5), e20162591. doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2591
- Ponti, M., & Canadian Paediatric Society Digital Health Task Force (2023). Screen time and preschool children: Promoting health and development in a digital world. Paediatrics & Child Health, 28(3), 184–192. doi.org/10.1093/pch/pxac125
- Tremblay, M. S., et al. (2016). Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth: An integration of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 41(6 Suppl. 3), S311–S327. doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2016-0151
- Australian Government Department of Health. Recommendations for children and young people (5 to 17 years) and the 24-hour movement guidelines for birth to 5 years.
- World Health Organization (2019). Guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age.