Kids Screen Time Calculator

How Much Screen Time Is Right for Your Child?

If you've asked yourself this question, you're already thinking about it more carefully than most parents do. Screen time has become one of the most talked-about parenting topics of our generation - and for good reason. But the answer isn't "as little as possible." It's more nuanced than that.

Two of the world's most trusted health organizations - the AAP in the US and the NHS in the UK - have published clear, age-specific recommendations that take the guesswork out of it. This calculator puts those guidelines to work for your family in seconds.

Why Screen Time Guidelines Exist

Young children's brains develop fastest in the first five years of life. The experiences that matter most during this window - talking, playing, exploring, face-to-face connection - simply can't be replaced by a screen. Research links heavy early screen exposure to delayed language development, shorter attention spans, and trouble with self-regulation.

For older kids, the concern shifts. A 9-year-old watching three hours of TV isn't necessarily harmed by the content - but those hours are replacing sleep, outdoor play, reading, and family time. That displacement is where the real impact shows up.

The Guidelines at a Glance

• Under 18 months: No recreational screens. Video calls with family are fine.
• 18 months - 2 years: High-quality content only, always watched with a parent.
• Ages 2-5: Up to 1 hour per day of quality programming.
• Ages 6 and up: Consistent limits - most families aim for 2 hours of recreational screen time per day.
• Teens: No fixed limit, but screens shouldn't crowd out sleep, exercise, or real-world relationships.

These apply to recreational screen time - entertainment, gaming, social media. Homework, educational apps, and video calls with grandparents don't count toward the limit.

How This Calculator Works

The calculator maps your child's age to the published recommendation for that age - the AAP and WHO figures for under-5s, and the AAP's "consistent family-agreed limits" approach for school-age children and teens - and then compares it against the hours you enter. It tells you whether your child's current use is within, close to, or above the recommended range for their age, and gives context on what that means. It does not send or store anything: the comparison runs entirely in your browser.

For children aged 6 and over there is no single official number, because the evidence does not support one. For those ages the calculator uses a widely-used practical benchmark of around two hours of recreational screen time on a school day, while making clear that the real test is whether screens are crowding out sleep, activity, homework and time with people.

Why the Hours Matter Less Than What They Replace

The most consistent finding in screen-time research is not about screens directly - it is about displacement. When researchers account for how much a child sleeps and how active they are, much of the link between screen time and poorer mood, attention and behaviour shrinks. In other words, the damage usually runs through lost sleep, lost activity and lost face-to-face time rather than through the screen itself.

That is why our guidance keeps coming back to the same priorities: protect sleep first (no screens in the hour before bed, no devices in the bedroom overnight), protect daily physical activity, and pay as much attention to what and with whom your child is watching as to the total minutes. A short block of slow-paced, age-appropriate content watched with a parent is a very different thing from a long stretch of autoplaying video alone.

How We Keep This Accurate

Screen-time guidance evolves as new research lands, so we review the calculator's figures and every guide on this site at least every six months, and whenever the AAP, WHO or NHS announce a revision. You can read our full process, our sources, our corrections policy and how the site is funded on our editorial standards page.