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Screen Time Apps for Kids and Free Settings Compared

By 10 October 20268 min read
A mother and daughter sit on a rug and look at a tablet together on a low table

The best screen time app for kids may already be on the tablet. iPad, Android, Fire, Switch and broadband controls compared, before you pay for an app.

For a child of 3 to 8, the best screen time app for kids is usually one you already have. Screen Time on an iPad, Family Link on an Android tablet and Nintendo's free app for a Switch all set daily limits and bedtimes for nothing, and a Fire tablet has Amazon's Parent Dashboard. A paid app mainly earns its keep in a house with a mix of devices.

Below, the built-in tools a UK family is likely to own, compared before anyone pays for an app. Every feature comes from the provider's own pages or app listing. Features change, so check the page before you rely on one.

Which tool suits which house?

  • An iPad or iPhone: Apple's Screen Time, set up from your own phone through Family Sharing.
  • An Android tablet: Google Family Link, managed from your phone or a web browser.
  • A Fire tablet or a Nintendo Switch: each has its own controls, Amazon's Parent Dashboard and Nintendo's Switch Parental Controls app.
  • An iPad at home and an Android tablet at Grandma's: this is the house where a paid app might be worth a look.

Your broadband provider's free filters sit underneath any of them, covering the home wifi.

What's the difference between a setting, a filter and an app?

Screen time settings are controls built into a device, usually set from a parent's phone, that limit when and how long a child uses it and what they can open. Three other things get called the same:

  • A broadband filter works on your home internet, to help stop age-inappropriate content reaching the devices in your home. The UK Safer Internet Centre says BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media all provide free parental controls that customers can switch on at any time.
  • App controls live inside one service, such as a kids profile on a streaming app, and only apply there.
  • A paid screen time app is a separate subscription that tries to do the device's job across devices from different makers.

Which device does your child actually use?

Controls belong to a device or an account, not to the child, so start with the screen the arguments happen over.

Apple's Screen Time needs Family Sharing and a Child Account. Its help page is plain about one snag: "It's important your child has their own Apple Account, and isn't sharing an account with anyone else". A family iPad signed in as you won't carry your child's limits.

Google's Family Link supervises a child on "certain Android and Chrome devices". You can run it from an Android phone, an iPhone or a web browser.

Amazon's Parent Dashboard covers Amazon Kids enabled devices. Nintendo's parental controls FAQ notes that the play time limit "is set for the console and therefore restricts all individual users of the console equally", which matters when a seven-year-old and a four-year-old share one Switch.

What to look for: the tool made by whoever made the device, signed in as your child.

Can it switch the screen off, or only count the minutes?

All four device tools can set a daily limit and a time of day when the screen stops. They differ in the detail.

  • Apple lets you set a daily time budget across categories such as games and entertainment, choose which apps work at different times of day, and run separate weekday and weekend routines. You can also pause device use from the same settings. These are the controls in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Apple says every device in the family group needs that software to use them, and a family that can't update every device keeps the previous version of Screen Time.
  • Family Link sets an overall limit, downtime, and limits for single apps, with unlimited time allowed for apps you choose, such as an educational one.
  • Amazon sets daily limits or limits by category, "while leaving unlimited time for reading", plus a Bedtime. Its Learn First setting blocks games and cartoons "until after educational goals are met".
  • Nintendo sets a daily limit in its free phone app, plus "a bedtime and morning start time, such as no gaming allowed between 21:00 and 08:00".

What to look for: a limit you can change from your own phone, so the end isn't you prising a tablet out of small hands.

What does each one filter, and what gets through?

For under-5s, the advice from Best Start in Life, the government's parenting service, is: "Use parental controls to block inappropriate, harmful content." Two of the sources here are plain that this has limits.

Google's Family Link FAQ says its filters "are not perfect, so explicit, graphic, or other content you may not want your child to see makes it through sometimes." The UK Safer Internet Centre says no filter or parental controls tool is 100 per cent effective.

Apple's approval settings are on by default for children under 13: Ask to Buy for apps and Ask to Browse for new websites. Nintendo offers three content presets, Young Child, Child and Teen. Amazon uses Age Filters on its kids' content.

Best Start in Life also asks parents to avoid young children using screens by themselves. A filter is a backstop for when you're in the next room, not a replacement for being in this one.

What to look for: approval for new apps and websites, so the first time your child meets something new is a conversation.

What about the TV and streaming apps?

Streaming apps mostly control what's watched, not for how long. Netflix's parental controls page lists kids profiles, maturity ratings, blocking titles, profile locks and autoplay settings. None of the controls it lists is a timer.

So the useful setting is autoplay: with the next episode no longer starting by itself, the end of one becomes a natural place to stop.

YouTube Kids does have one. Parents can create a profile for each child, choose an "Approved content only" setting, block channels and "set a timer to limit screen time".

What to look for: a kids profile, with a lock on the grown-ups' profiles.

How do the built-in tools compare side by side?

Each cell comes from the provider's own page (broadband from the UK Safer Internet Centre), checked when this page was last updated.

  • Daily time limit, Android: Family Link: Yes, a daily budget across app categories; Fire tablet: Amazon Kids: Yes, plus limits per app; Nintendo Switch: Yes, daily or by category; Home broadband: Yes, set in the phone app
  • Bedtime or schedule, Android: Family Link: Schedules by time of day, weekdays and weekends; Fire tablet: Amazon Kids: Downtime and school time; Nintendo Switch: Bedtime; Home broadband: Bedtime and morning start
  • New apps and content, Android: Family Link: Ask to Buy, on by default under 13; Fire tablet: Amazon Kids: Approval for new apps; Nintendo Switch: Age Filters on content; Home broadband: Presets: Young Child, Child, Teen
  • Websites, Android: Family Link: Ask to Browse, on by default under 13; Fire tablet: Amazon Kids: Block sites in Chrome; Nintendo Switch: Not covered on its page; Home broadband: Not applicable
  • Managed from, Android: Family Link: Your own iPhone, iPad or Mac; Fire tablet: Amazon Kids: Your Android phone, iPhone or a browser; Nintendo Switch: The Parent Dashboard; Home broadband: The free phone app
  • Cost, Android: Family Link: Built into the device; Fire tablet: Amazon Kids: Free app; Nintendo Switch: Check Amazon's page; Home broadband: Free app
  • The catch, Android: Family Link: Child needs their own Apple Account; Fire tablet: Amazon Kids: Child's limits don't apply on an iPhone or iPad; Nintendo Switch: Amazon Kids devices only; Home broadband: One limit for everyone on the console

When is a paid app the better choice?

A paid app makes sense when your child moves between devices from different makers. Google's FAQ says that on an iPhone or iPad, Family Link's app management, Chrome filtering and screen time limits "will not apply to the child's activities". Apple's Screen Time covers Apple devices. An iPad, an old Android phone and a Switch means three dashboards; a paid app's pitch is one.

Before paying, check four things on the app's own page: that it lists every device your child uses, what it has to install on each one, whether it's a monthly subscription, and whether there's a free trial to test it on a real Tuesday. We're not naming any, because the features change faster than this page would.

The less obvious answer, for a three- or four-year-old, is often no app at all. If the tablet lives in the kitchen and is used while you're there, the guidance's advice to avoid screens alone does most of the work. The UK screen time guidance explains it line by line.

Who can help when the settings aren't the problem?

For help with set-up, Internet Matters has guides for devices, consoles, streaming apps and broadband. If what's worrying you is your child's sleep, mood, speech or behaviour, or switching off ends in distress most days, the person to ask is your health visitor or GP. Once they're at school, ask the class teacher whether they seem settled during the day.

Frequently asked questions

Can I control my child's screen time from my phone?

Yes, with each of the built-in tools. Apple lets the Family Sharing organiser or a parent set a child's Screen Time from their own iPhone, iPad or Mac. Family Link runs on a parent's Android phone or iPhone, or in a web browser. Nintendo's play time limits are only set through its free phone app, and Amazon's controls sit in the Parent Dashboard.

What are the best free screen time apps?

We won't rank them, because the right one depends on the device your child uses. The free options are the ones made for that device: Screen Time is built into iPhone and iPad, and Google Family Link and Nintendo's Switch Parental Controls app are both listed as free on the UK App Store. For a house with one kind of device, one of those is enough.

What does the NHS recommend for children's screen time?

The UK's under-5s guidance comes from the government's Best Start in Life service. For under-2s, it advises no screens apart from shared activities with family, and names video calls and looking at digital photo albums together. From age 2 to 5: 'Try to keep it to 1 hour a day. Less if possible.' There's no UK hourly figure for children aged 6 and over.

Do screen time limits work on a shared family tablet?

Not well. Apple's help page says it's important your child has their own Apple Account and isn't sharing one with anyone else, so a tablet signed in as you won't carry their limits. Nintendo's play time limit is set for the whole console and restricts every user equally. If the tablet is shared, set it up for the youngest user.

The half of the plan no app covers

A setting decides when the screen goes off. It can't decide what happens in the next ten minutes, and that's where the switch-off is won or lost. We've written about how to cut back on screens without making every evening a fight, and a family screen time agreement puts the limits in words your child helped choose.

Having the next thing already out helps too. On a children's yoga mat whose 15 poses are numbered and laser-engraved, a five-year-old can begin at pose 1 without you or a screen leading.

Sources

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