Under-2 Screen Guidance

Video calls with family are treated separately by most guidance and are not what the recommendations are about. Beyond that, guidance for under-twos recommends against sedentary screen time, and where it happens, co-viewing with an adult talking about it is what makes it different.

Because of the video deficit: infants and young toddlers do not reliably transfer what they see on a screen to the real world, so the time largely displaces the interaction and movement that they do learn from.

Yes, and it is the exposure families most often miss. Background television measurably reduces the amount and quality of talk between adults and young children, which is the strongest single predictor of early language development.