When it comes to deter­min­ing how much screen time is too much for chil­dren, one voice stands out above the rest. The most recent and wide­ly accept­ed guide­lines for screen use among young chil­dren come from the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics. As par­ents and care­givers build­ing a kids video app like Jel­lies, screen time is an impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tion for us. AAP gives an idea of how often and for how long fam­i­lies should per­mit their chil­dren to inter­act with screens like tele­vi­sions, tablets, smart­phones and oth­er devices.

AAP is an orga­ni­za­tion of 64,000 pedi­a­tri­cians and oth­er med­ical pro­fes­sion­als ded­i­cat­ed to the health of chil­dren, teens, and young adults. In this arti­cle, we exam­ine the lat­est AAP screen time guide­lines and explain what these new rules mean for your family.

Remember, These Are Screen Time Guidelines

Some­thing to con­sid­er as you read is that every fam­i­ly and child is dif­fer­ent and par­ents need to use their own par­ent­ing goals and day-to-day con­text to shape their own screen usage rules. The AAP even acknowl­edges that not every fam­i­ly uti­lizes screens the same way giv­en the diver­si­ty of screen con­tent and ways chil­dren can inter­act with devices in their every­day lives. While one child may watch an hour of kids videos, anoth­er might be active­ly engaged in an edu­ca­tion­al app, or chat­ting with a rel­a­tive over Skype. Not all screen inter­ac­tions are the same, and so these guide­lines are meant to be a foun­da­tion for fam­i­lies to cre­ate their own screen usage rules. They can also help par­ents iden­ti­fy if their fam­i­lies have a prob­lem with screen con­tent consumption.

With that in mind, here are AAP’s most recent screen time rules for children.

Screen Time Guidelines for 0-18 Months

It may sound sur­pris­ing to some, but AAP rec­om­mends that chil­dren under 18 months of age get no screen time (includ­ing tele­vi­sion) except for video chat­ting with oth­ers like dis­tant fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends. This comes along with the find­ing that 20% of chil­dren in a TAR­Get Kids! study had used a hand­held device dai­ly, like a smart­phone or tablet, for an aver­age of 28 min­utes by the time of their 18-month check­ups. That’s 28 dai­ly min­utes too many, accord­ing to the AAP. (We didn’t find any infor­ma­tion about the tele­vi­sion-view­ing habits of this study’s participants.)

Even what’s con­sid­ered ​“high qual­i­ty” screen con­tent has lit­tle val­ue for chil­dren this young. 

AAP’s guide­line is also based off con­cerns that hand­held screens usage in par­tic­u­lar at such a young age might actu­al­ly be harm­ful to the child’s devel­op­ment. In that same TAR­Get Kids! study, researchers found that the more hand­held screen time a child had, the more like­ly the child expe­ri­enced some delay in expres­sive speech. To be more spe­cif­ic, ​“for each 30-minute increase in hand­held screen time, researchers found a 49% increased risk of expres­sive speech delay.” The impacts seemed to stop there as researchers didn’t see a link between screen time and oth­er devel­op­men­tal delays like social inter­ac­tions, body lan­guage, or gestures.

Screen Time Guidelines for 18-24 Months

Before Octo­ber 2016, AAP actu­al­ly rec­om­mend­ed the same amount of screen time for all chil­dren under 2 years of age: None. That has since changed to acknowl­edge that more fam­i­lies are start­ing to use screens to edu­cate and enter­tain younger chil­dren. If a par­ent wants to intro­duce their young child to con­tent on a screen, they can do so and still meet AAP guidelines. 

While AAP doesn’t apply a dai­ly time lim­it to screen usage at this age, the orga­ni­za­tion does stip­u­late that all screen time should be with adult super­vi­sion and high qual­i­ty con­tent. The adult super­vi­sion AAP rec­om­mends goes beyond know­ing what con­tent chil­dren are con­sum­ing on their screens. Instead, AAP says that chil­dren under 2 years should only watch and inter­act with screen con­tent if an adult is active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in the expe­ri­ence with them. That is, par­ents should be view­ing the same con­tent at the same time, as well as talk­ing to their child about the con­tent they’re watch­ing, and rein­forc­ing the content’s teach­able moments as it makes sense with that indi­vid­ual child.

We dive into what makes cer­tain kids videos high qual­i­ty at What Kids Videos Are Right for My Child?

Screen Time Guidelines for 2-5 Years

Chil­dren between the ages of 2 and 5 should be lim­it­ed to one hour of screen use per day, accord­ing to AAP. Like the guide­lines for younger chil­dren, all screen con­tent should be high qual­i­ty and con­sumed along­side an adult who is active­ly watch­ing and guid­ing the child through the experience. 

Accord­ing to AAP, once a child reach­es 3 years of age, his or her mind is more apt to learn social, lan­guage, and read­ing skills from high qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion­al con­tent. AAP empha­sizes the impor­tance of mon­i­tor­ing what chil­dren are watch­ing. At this age, chil­dren are more able to learn from a vari­ety of types of con­tent and may pick up on mes­sag­ing that’s inappropriate.

What About Screen Time Guidelines for Older Kids?

AAP doesn’t offer strict screen-time guide­lines for chil­dren old­er than 5. They do, how­ev­er, pro­vide rec­om­men­da­tions that par­ents can adapt for their own fam­i­ly screen usage as makes sense. Among the sug­ges­tions is cre­at­ing screen-free zones and screen-free times in the home. Some of the rec­om­mend­ed screen-free areas and moments include:

• Kitchen or din­ing room table
• Child’s bed­room
• Meal times
• One hour before bed
• Car rides, except for long trips

These rec­om­men­da­tions tar­get rooms and times that pro­mote face-to-face social inter­ac­tion with oth­ers. AAP also empha­sizes the impor­tance of ensur­ing that chil­dren expe­ri­ence a vari­ety of play and learn­ing time that doesn’t involve a screen. You can learn more about the AAP screen guide­lines at healthy​chil​dren​.org.

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