Screen Time by Age and Healthy Use

Today's children are born into technology; neither banning screens entirely nor leaving them unlimited is the solution. There is a saying known in medicine: it is the dose that separates the medicine from the poison. For screens, too, what is decisive is not only the duration; the content being watched, the child's age, and whether someone is beside them at the time also matter. The real harm of the screen is often that it behaves like a thief of time, stealing from sleep, play, and back-and-forth conversation.

Recommendations by age

Young children learn a word or a movement far more easily from a live person; when they watch the same thing on a screen, they do not get the same benefit, because the screen cannot provide that back-and-forth feedback and that warm bond.

• Under the age of two, avoid the screen as much as possible, apart from video chat
• Between the ages of two and five, watch at most one hour of quality content a day, preferably with you beside them
• With older children, rather than banning the screen, build a trust-based conversation that, without frightening them, explains the importance of privacy and that they can come to you in difficult situations

Limits you can apply in daily life

Managing the screen is possible not with strict bans but with a few plain and consistent rules.

• Keep the dinner table screen-free; this both protects family conversation and makes it easier for the child to notice they are full
• Turn off screens at least an hour before sleep; screen light keeps the brain alert and makes the transition to sleep harder
• Keep the bedroom as an area that screens do not enter
• As much as possible, watch together and mindfully, ask questions about the content, and connect what you see to daily life
• Do not make the screen a tool of reward or punishment; this makes the screen even more appealing in their eyes
• Prefer slow-paced, age-appropriate, and educational content, and stay away from broadcasts full of advertising or containing violence
• Avoid a background television that is constantly on; even if it is not watched directly, it reduces conversation and thereby negatively affects language development

The importance of setting an example

Children take as their model what we do far more than what we say. Putting the phone aside when you are with your child is the most powerful way of saying to them, right now you are the most important thing. Instead of immediately handing a screen to a crying or bored child, it is also valuable to let them be bored from time to time; boredom is a fertile empty space in which imagination and creativity take root.