I counted up my kid's daily tablet time and it ran longer than I'd thought. Then I went looking for how much is right, and the numbers differed a little by organization. Here's the guidance in one sourced table, and what we did when the numbers met our actual evenings.
The major bodies mostly converge: under 2, almost nothing beyond video calls; ages 2 to 5, under an hour a day, watched together; school age and up, conditions instead of a number: a line that doesn't crowd out sleep, activity, and conversation. The guidance trades numbers for conditions as age rises because what, when, and with whom split the outcomes more than the minutes do.
Screen guidance runs sharp at the young end and conditional at the older end. The table gathers the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Canadian Paediatric Society. Pediatric bodies elsewhere mostly land inside the same range.
| Age | World Health Organization | American Academy of Pediatrics | Canadian Paediatric Society |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1 | Screen time not recommended | Avoided, beyond video calls | Not recommended |
| 1 to 2 | None at 1; under an hour at 2 | From 18 months, only quality content watched with a parent | Not recommended |
| 2 to 5 | Under an hour a day, less is better | About an hour a day, watched together | Under an hour a day |
| 6 and up | No separate guidance | Consistent rules that don't crowd out sleep, activity, and conversation | Under two recreational hours a day suggested |
Two things stand out. First, up to age 5 the bodies barely differ: under an hour a day. Second, past school age, almost nobody assigns a number, asking instead whether sleep and activity stay uncrowded. That's not the guidance going soft. It's the guidance admitting that from this age on, a number can't answer the question.
Because the same hour produces different outcomes. Three conditions repeat across the research: what's watched, when, and with whom.
My kid watches about an hour a day, and at first that hour sat after dinner, before bed. The minutes were inside the guidance and the falling-asleep was taking forever. We didn't cut the time. We moved it to the afternoon, and the falling-asleep visibly quickened. That's when I learned the conditions outrank the number.
Sick days, long drives, the 30 minutes when dinner has to get made. Almost no house keeps the guidance daily, and the bodies who wrote it know that. The guidance is a direction for the average week, not a daily exam. Don't count the missed days. Watch the week's direction.
More useful than guilt over an over-limit day: checking whether that time crowded out sleep, play, and conversation. If it didn't, that was a fine day.
Start a dive in Sumbi and put the phone down, and the haenyeo descends, your remaining breath shrinking only while another app is open. While the kid watches their set hour, a parent can run a 30-minute dive and sit alongside, watching together. Answering a call isn't surfacing, so a ring from daycare or school just pauses the dive and lets it continue.
Dive beside your kid →An hour a day keeps far worse than four to five in the afternoon. A kid who knows when the watching happens stops begging all day, and the parent stops repeating not-now outside it. Whatever the age, the hour before bed stays empty. Ours sits after the afternoon snack.
Abrupt shutoffs bring tears every time. Put a timer where the kid sees it and say: when this rings, it's over. Repeat it a few times and a day arrives when the kid turns it off first. Ours took about three weeks. And because the timer does the ending, the resentment never routes to the parent.
Daily measuring burns the parent out. Once a week, check roughly how much got watched and how bedtime behaved. Minutes crept up but sleep and play held: a fine week. Bedtime slid later: revisit the slot before the amount.
My kid runs on one afternoon hour now, nothing before bed. Through that hour I sit alongside or make dinner. Less a house that keeps the guidance than a house moving in the direction the guidance points. One line from a phone-down day. When my kid's timer rang, my phone went down with it.
This article is general information, not medical advice. If sleep or daily life stays disrupted, talk to a professional.
Sumbi