guides

UK Screen Time Guidance: What the Government Says

By Chaz Bagri18 July 20268 min read

A woman reads aloud from a small book to a toddler sitting on her lap

Screen time guidance in the UK, quoted from the government's own pages: the hour for 2 to 5s, what else it asks, and what's due for ages 5 to 16.

The UK government's screen time guidance, published on 26 March 2026, covers children under 5. For under-2s it says: "Avoid screen time other than for shared activities with family that encourage bonding, interaction and conversation." For 2 to 5 year olds: "Try to keep it to 1 hour a day. Less if possible." There is no published UK limit for older children.

The guidance lives on Best Start in Life, the government's website for parents of young children. Most of what you'll read about it is someone else's summary. This page quotes the documents themselves: what they say, what they don't, and where a couple of the numbers doing the rounds actually came from.

What does the UK government say about screen time for under-5s?

The Best Start in Life screen time page opens its answer to "How much screen time should my child have?" with one line: "Limit total screen time for young children, wherever possible." Then it gives two age bands.

Under 2 years: "Avoid screen time other than for shared activities with family that encourage bonding, interaction and conversation."
2 to 5 years: "Try to keep it to 1 hour a day. Less if possible."

The shared activities it has in mind "could include video calling with friends and family or looking through digital photo albums together."

The government's announcement on 26 March 2026, from the Department for Education, the Department of Health and Social Care and Downing Street, summarised the 2 to 5 advice slightly differently: "Trying to keep it to no more than one hour a day. Avoid at mealtimes and in the hour before bed." The guidance page is the one to follow, and it was last updated on 29 June 2026.

Our screen time by age guide sets these bands next to the WHO's and carries on to age 8, so the numbers aren't repeated here. For what a day inside the hour can look like with a one or two-year-old, see screen time for toddlers.

What does the guidance say beyond the hour?

More than the hour, as it turns out. The page has six short sections, and the hour is only one of them. The rest, in its own words:

Content: "Slow-paced, predictable content is better for young brains." Fast-paced, social media-style videos are best avoided, and it advises using parental controls, avoiding social media, and "Don't let young children use AI toys, tools or chatbots until there's more evidence".
Your own phone: "Lead by example", because children copy your screen habits, and long periods on your phone "can make it harder to notice what your child is doing or feeling."
When and where: "Avoid young children using screens alone" and try watching together instead. "Keep bedrooms and mealtimes free from screens." "Try not to have screens on in the background", especially at family time, meals or playtime. And "Try to avoid screens for the hour before bed, as this could affect sleep."
Swaps: at mealtimes, "background music, simple conversation, table games, colouring or even 'I Spy'"; at bedtime, reading stories together.
Development: "A large amount of screen time is linked with negative effects on children's health and development", and "Ensure screen time of any kind doesn't replace sleep, physical activity, active play or direct parent-child interaction."

The hour is total screen time, so television counts towards it. For video calls, audiobooks, the car and the other edge cases, our page of parents' screen time questions takes them one at a time. There's also a short section for children with special educational needs or disabilities, noting that "Screen-based assistive technology can be an important tool" for some families.

Where do the hour and the 30 minutes come from?

Both come from an independent report. Before writing the guidance, the government asked an expert group co-chaired by the Children's Commissioner for England and Professor Russell Viner to review the evidence. Their independent report on screen use by children under 5 recommended that 2 to 5 year olds "keep screen time to no more than an hour a day, ideally through short chunks (30 minutes or less) and not during mealtimes or near to bedtime."

The published guidance kept the hour and left out the chunks. So if you've seen 30 minutes quoted as the UK limit, that's the report's suggested length for one sitting, not the guidance's daily total.

The report is also candid about how firm the hour is. "The evidence on time thresholds for screen use in the early years is very limited," it says, and "There is no clear evidence for a single 'safe' threshold." What it did say was that there "appears to be minimal risk of harms at or below about an hour a day". In other words, the hour is a precautionary line, not a cliff edge your child falls off at 61 minutes.

What does the NHS say about screen time?

The NHS sends you to the same guidance, and phrases the hour more firmly. Its page on activities for toddlers says: "You should limit screen time for children aged 2 to 5." It recommends content with simple stories and slow, clear speech, adds "Don't use them for more than 1 hour a day", and links to the Best Start in Life page for more.

On sleep, the NHS page on sleep and young children says: "Do not let your child look at laptops, tablets or phones in the 30 to 60 minutes before bed", because the light from screens can interfere with sleep. The government guidance asks for the full hour, so if you want one rule that satisfies both, use the hour.

What is happening with guidance for 5 to 16 year olds?

It has been announced but not published. On 8 June 2026 the government said new guidance on screen use for children aged 5 to 16 "will be published this autumn", that it "could include advice on when a child should get their first smartphone", and that it "will avoid blanket rules and help families make informed choices." A call for evidence ran from 8 to 29 June 2026. The guidance itself had not appeared on GOV.UK when this page was last updated, so nobody can yet tell you what it says.

Until it does, the most recent official advice for school-age children is older. In 2019 the UK Chief Medical Officers reviewed the research and concluded it was "insufficiently conclusive to support UK CMO evidence-based guidelines on optimal amounts of screen use". Instead of a limit, they gave parents tips: agree boundaries together, keep meal times screen-free, leave phones outside the bedroom at bedtime, and take a break after a couple of hours sitting or lying down using a screen.

What doesn't the guidance say?

Quite a lot, and the gaps matter as much as the lines.

It doesn't say screens cause harm. It says a large amount of screen time is "linked with" negative effects. The expert report notes that most of the studies behind it can't separate cause from effect, although a small number of stronger ones suggest higher screen use may play a part.
It doesn't ban screens for babies. Shared family use, such as a video call with a grandparent, is the exception it names.
It doesn't cover anyone over 5. Older children get separate guidance, which has been announced but not published.
It doesn't rank devices or name programmes. It describes what good content looks like, slow-paced and predictable, and leaves the choosing to you.

What does it change at home?

Mostly, it changes where screens are, not how many minutes they get. Four of its asks cost nothing: no screens at meals, none in bedrooms, nothing in the hour before bed, and the television off when nobody's watching it. Those four alone reshape an evening before you ever reach for a timer.

If you'd like to turn that into something the whole house signs up to, our family screen time rules walk through a written agreement, and reducing screen time for kids covers cutting back without a nightly battle.

The swap that's ready before the screen goes off works best. For a three or four-year-old, that might be a children's yoga mat, where the 15 poses are laser-engraved and numbered so they can go from one to the next on their own. A book, a box of blocks or a game of I Spy works on the same principle.

Who can you ask if screens are worrying you?

If your child's speech, sleep, development or mood worries you, or switching the screen off ends in distress every time, talk to your health visitor or GP. Screens are rarely the whole story, and a health visitor or GP can help you work out what is. The Best Start in Life page also links to further support for parents.

Frequently asked questions

What are the rules for screen time in the UK?

There are no rules in the legal sense, only guidance. For under-5s, the government's Best Start in Life page says under-2s should avoid screens except shared family activities, and for 2 to 5 year olds: 'Try to keep it to 1 hour a day. Less if possible.' For older children there is no UK hourly limit. The Chief Medical Officers' 2019 advice is to agree boundaries as a family.

Is the 3-6-9-12 rule part of UK guidance?

No. It's a set of age markers from France, widely shared online but not part of the UK government's guidance or the NHS's advice. Where the two overlap it's stricter: its first marker is no screens before three, while the UK guidance allows under-2s shared family screen use such as video calls.

Is the screen time guidance the law?

No. It's advice for parents, and nothing on the Best Start in Life page is enforced. The legal powers mentioned in the government's announcement relate to a separate consultation on social media, covering ideas such as a minimum age and overnight curfews, not to how long a toddler watches television.

When was the UK screen time guidance published?

The under-5s guidance was announced on GOV.UK on 26 March 2026, the independent expert report behind it followed on 27 March, and the Best Start in Life page was last updated on 29 June 2026. Guidance for 5 to 16 year olds was announced on 8 June 2026 and had not been published when this page was last updated.

Does the guidance apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

It comes from UK government departments, but the expert report behind it and the call for evidence for the 5 to 16 guidance are both marked 'Applies to England' on GOV.UK. Health is devolved, so if you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, ask your health visitor which advice they use locally.

Sources

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