Blog · For parents

How much screen time should a toddler have?

The numbers are easy to look up and hard to apply. What follows is the guidance, plus the parts that matter more than the guidance.

Tibino rests his chin on his hands and watches sand run through an hourglass

Short answer. Common guidance: avoid screens other than video calls before about 18 months; from 18 to 24 months only high-quality content watched together; ages 2 to 5, around one hour a day of good content, ideally shared. What the content is, and how the session ends, matters more than hitting the exact number.

The guidance, briefly

Age	Typical recommendation
Under 18 months	Avoid screen media other than video calls
18–24 months	Only high-quality content, watched together
2–5 years	About one hour a day of high-quality content, ideally shared
6 and over	Consistent limits set by the family; sleep and activity come first

These figures come from paediatric bodies including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization. They are a starting point, not a law of nature — and every one of them stresses quality and co-viewing alongside the number.

Why the number is the least useful part

Twenty minutes of a fast, loud show followed by a snatched-away tablet is a worse experience than forty minutes of a calm episode that finishes properly. The research that produced these numbers consistently finds that what and how outweigh how long at this age.

The three things that make more difference than minutes: whether an adult is nearby to answer questions, whether the content is slow enough to follow, and whether the session has an ending the child can see coming.

Making the ending easier

Choose an episode, not a channel. A defined thing has a defined end.
Turn auto-play off. This single switch resolves most end-of-session conflict.
Warn once, near the end. “One more song and then we turn it off.”
Have the next thing ready. Transitions fail into a vacuum, not into an activity.

What counts as high quality

In this context quality is not production budget. It means: slow enough to follow, a story with a beginning and an end, characters who solve problems with help, no advertising aimed at the child, and nothing that requires an adult to explain away afterwards.

Series that meet this consistently include Bluey, Daniel Tiger, Puffin Rock, Numberblocks and Sesame Street, alongside a growing number of small independent studios building to the same standard. Tibino Kids is one of them: calm 3D farm stories for ages 2–6, cut at six to twelve seconds per shot, with no villains, no jump scares and no cliffhangers.

Frequently asked

Is one hour a day of screen time bad for a 3-year-old?

No — around an hour of good content is within common guidance for ages 2 to 5. Watching some of it together and choosing calm, story-led material matters more than the precise duration.

Does watching together really make a difference?

Yes, and it is one of the better-supported findings. Children understand and remember more when an adult comments and answers questions, and the shared attention is itself valuable. Even a few minutes of joint viewing changes the experience.

Are video calls counted as screen time?

Generally no. Video calls with family are usually excluded from screen-time limits, including for children under 18 months, because they are genuine two-way interaction rather than passive viewing.

What about background television?

Background TV is worth reducing even if nobody is watching. It reduces the amount and quality of speech directed at a child, which is one of the clearer findings in early-language research.