The World Health Organisation (WHO), recommends that babies and toddlers under the age of 2 should avoid screen time altogether. Once over the age of 2, the WHO recommends that screen time is limited to just one hour every day. [1]
In this guide, we’ll take a look at some of the key data, to find out how much screen time is appropriate for babies and toddlers. We’ll also take a look at some handy ways to limit screen time, and how to ensure screen time is healthy and enriching for your child.
Recommended Screen Time For Babies & Toddlers
| Age Group | Recommended Screen Time |
|---|---|
| 0-3 Months | No Screen Time |
| 3-6 Months | 10 to 15 minutes a day |
| 6-9 Months | 15 to 20 minutes a day |
| 9-12 Months | 20 to 25 minutes a day |
| 12-18 Months | 1 hour maximum a day |
| 18-24 Months | 1 hour a day |
| 2-3 Years | 1 to 2 hours a day |
Benefits Of Screen Time For Toddlers
Educational Content
Of course, the quality of screen time can vary massively depending on the type of content your child is engaging with. Educational content can massively improve the quality of screen time, as it engages their minds, and keeps them from passively watching. Educational content can help to improve your child’s performance in school!
Improved Socialisation
Screen time can help to improve your toddler’s socialisation when enjoyed with parental supervision. Wherever possible, it’s best to use screens alongside your toddler. As you and your toddler watch a show, be sure to talk to them about what’s happening on screen, and how it makes them feel.
Talking about the action on screen can help your child to recognise emotions and improve their communication skills. It ensures your child is not just passively enjoying the content on-screen, but also engaging their brain at the same time.
Can Promote Creativity
Child-focused smartphone and tablet apps can help to promote creativity. There are all manner of digital art platforms available across portable smart devices, which toddlers can use to express themselves creatively, all without making a mess!
There are also child-focused games available on smart devices, which help to promote problem-solving and critical thinking.
A Break For Parents
While it’s best for toddlers to enjoy screen time alongside others, screen time can help to free up a parent’s schedule. Raising a toddler can be time-consuming, and an hour of screen time can help to free up some extra time to carry out a few extra tasks around the house!
Drawbacks Of Screen Time For Toddlers
Decreased Physical Activity
Too much screen time will naturally lead to a decrease in physical activity. This can put a toddler at risk of weight gain. This is why it’s recommended to limit screen time to an hour every day.
Outside of that time, it’s best for your toddler to be active, whether that be playing with toys, or socialising with loved ones.
Shorter Attention Spans
Screen time can naturally be very exciting for toddlers. Child-focused content is designed to be visually stimulating and immediately gratifying. Too much exposure to stimulating content can result in decreased attention spans. As children come to associate screen time with immediate dopamine release, their ability to defer gratification will be impacted, resulting in shorter attention spans.
Boredom can be beneficial for toddlers, as it encourages them to use their imaginations to entertain themselves. This can lead to improved creativity and even the discovery of new hobbies and pastimes!
Disrupted Sleep
As we’ve established, screen time can be incredibly stimulating for toddlers, making them restless. As such, it’s worth limiting screen time as much as possible hours before bedtime. This allows your toddler’s mind to slow down ahead of bedtime. So, once they put their head to the pillow, they’ll be right off to sleep.
It’s also worth noting the negative impact of blue light on sleep. Excessive blue light exposure suppresses the release of melatonin, the hormone responsible for sleep. Too much screen time before bed can make it difficult for your toddler to fall asleep!
Impacted Social Skills
Interacting with other human beings is crucial for toddlers. Socialising helps a toddler to recognise and understand their own emotions and the emotions of other people. Spending time with other people allows a toddler to recognise speech, as well as non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions. This helps to improve their sense of empathy and their ability to recognise their own emotions.
Passive and isolated screen time cannot act as a substitute for real human interaction, as it does not allow a toddler suitable time to recognise and understand emotions.
Has Screen Time Increased Over The Years for babies and toddlers?
Though the WHO has remained firm on the amount of time children should spend on screens, screen time has increased among babies and toddlers. This is partly due to the increased accessibility of portable screens. Dedicated children’s tablets allow young users to access all kinds of web content at a young age. Many parents are now opting to give tablets and other smart devices to babies and toddlers to keep them quiet throughout the day.
Screen time amongst toddlers and babies saw a sharp increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time, many families opted to spend more time indoors, which meant that much more time was spent on screens, especially among babies and toddlers.
Popular Content For Babies And Toddlers
Babies and toddlers are now spoilt for choice when it comes to content. Not only are their numerous children’s TV channels, but also dedicated versions of platforms like Netflix and YouTube for young ones to browse.
Shows like Peppa Pig, Bluey, and Paw Patrol continue to dominate traditional broadcast television charts, becoming trusted entertainment brands among countless babies and toddlers across the UK.
Viewership stats amongst babies and toddlers have also seen an increase on major streaming services. For instance, on YouTube, the immensely popular channel Cocomelon is currently the third most subscribed channel of all time, with 184 million subscribers as of 2024. Over the years, it has achieved viewership numbers in excess of 190 billion!
By 2023, downloads of the dedicated YouTube Kids app had reached a truly immense 131 million! This dedicated app is designed to platform child-friendly content, while filtering out adult content, to keep babies and toddlers safe as they watch. [2]
Age Appropriate Content For Babies & Toddlers
| Age Group | Screen Time Recommendations |
|---|---|
| 0-3 Months | Screen time should be kept to an absolute minimum. At this point, there are no shows appropriate. |
| 3-6 Months |
Baby Shark – Features high-contrast colours and simple shapes, visually stimulating to capture attention Baby-Focused YouTube Channels – Upload looping videos with simple high-contrast visuals paired with gentle music, helping babies relax. |
| 6-9 Months | Cocomelon – Features high-contrast, colourful visuals while introducing very basic stories for young minds to follow. |
| 9-12 Months |
Sesame Street – Simple stories with easily identifiable characters. Encourages babies to recognise emotions, developing empathy. Sarah and Duck – Slow-paced stories with gentle music. Available on BBC iPlayer. |
| 12-18 Months |
Blippi YouTube Channel – Invites children to interact with the action on-screen, fostering engagement. Dora the Explorer – Consistently asks viewers questions about the action on-screen, developing critical thinking. |
| 18-24 Months |
The Wiggles – Invites children to join in with songs and dances, discouraging sedentary viewing. WordWorld YouTube Channel – A word-focused cartoon helping 18-24 month-olds recognise and understand words. |
| 2-3 Years |
Bluey – Features story-focused episodes relatable to toddlers’ experiences, enjoyed by both toddlers and adults. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse – Combines focused stories with interactive elements encouraging physical activity. |
It pays to be discerning with regard to the content your babies and toddlers engage with. Good content should stimulate your child’s mind as they watch. It should invite them to interact with the action on-screen and to use their own imaginations. We recommend looking out for content hat challenges your child to think.
When it’s time to settle down for screen time with your young ones, there are some fantastic shows, YouTube channels and films to tune into.
Broadcast TV channels like Cbeebies, Disney Junior, and Nick Junior continuously broadcast age-appropriate content for young audiences to engage with. Popular shows include the enduring Peppa Pig, and the immensely successful Australian import Bluey.
On-demand services like Netflix, ITVX, and BBC iPlayer also play host to a range of age-appropriate shows. On BBC iPlayer you’ll find a range of classic and modern shows perfect for young ones. Teletubbies is particularly great for shared screen time, as it invites children to get involved. Octonauts Above & Beyond has an educational focus, with each episode focusing on learning about different animals!
YouTube is a fantastic resource for toddler-focused content. As we highlighted earlier, Cocomelon is one of the most subscribed channels on the platform, thanks to its vast array of toddler-focused content. Cocomelon is designed to stimulate the imagination with its catchy songs that young ones can then apply to their own lives. There’s also the popular Sesame Street YouTube channel, which draws upon the show’s rich history to create educational content that you can access at any time!
How To Limit Screen Time For Babies & Toddlers
As we noted earlier, excessive screen time can have detrimental effects on your toddler’s short and long-term health. Let’s take a look at some nifty ways to limit screen time.
Set A Good Example
Babies and toddlers naturally imitate their parents. As such, it’s worth setting a good example for your little ones and limiting your own screen time. When your toddler sees you spending hours scrolling on your phone, they’ll naturally want to imitate it.
Instead, be sure to spend plenty of quality time with your children, and interact with them directly. When you have free time to spend with your children, make sure to cherish it, as it’s not only beneficial for their development, but it will also improve your own mood.
Encourage Outdoor Play
Getting outdoors is beneficial for your child’s physical and mental health. Outdoor spaces allow little ones to run around and explore at their own pace. This not only provides vital exercise that keeps weight off, but it also helps to improve bone density and kick-start muscle development.
Outdoor play also gets young ones out into the sunlight, which is a vital source of Vitamin D. Vitamin D stimulates the release of serotonin, which leads to an improved mood, for a happier child! Vitamin D also aids in cognitive development, to improve your child’s memory.
Provide Opportunities
While it’s important to limit the amount of screen time babies and toddlers receive, it’s important that they have other ways to entertain themselves. Make sure they have plenty of toys to play with, and plenty of space to move around the home!
Set Digital Limits
Many smart devices allow parents to set limitations on screen time. It’s worth making good use of these, as they can encourage discipline, to ensure your toddler’s screen time exceeds no more than an hour.
As your children get older, and start making frequent use of the web, it’s worth making use of internet service timers. These allow you to set a certain time past which the internet cannot be used at home, encouraging children to take up good sleeping habits.
Emphasise The Importance Of Sleep
Make sure to limit screen time in the last few hours before bedtime. Ensure your toddler understands the importance of sleep for their long-term and short-term health. Encourage your toddler to engage in less-stimulating activities in the final hours of the day, to allow their mind time to relax and release melatonin.
It can also be helpful to get involved with bedtime. Read your toddler a bedtime story, or engage in gentle play before tucking them in for the night!
Socialise!
Make sure to get your baby or toddler socialising and spending time with family and friends. Socialising helps young ones to develop their empathy and their language skills. It also helps to improve their overall attention spans. Excessive screen time, on the other hand, will shorten your young one’s attention span.
References
[1] – nct.org.uk
[2] – statista.com
