The British government is preparing its first guide on screen time for parents of young children under 5 in April after raising concerns that heavy daily screen use can harm young children’s language development, The Guardian reports.
The push is based on government-commissioned research that links peak screen use among two-year-olds, about five hours a day, with weaker vocabulary than their peers, closer to 44 minutes a day. Screens are already almost universal by the age of two, so the instructions are intended as a help that you can actually use, not a prohibition.
Passive time is the goal
Ministers focus on passive viewing, when a child watches without much interaction or shared attention. This is important because language grows fastest when toddlers talk back and forth, naming, pointing, repeating, and having small conversations that build on what they are doing.
In practice, this means that guidance is likely to rely on simple habits that prevent screens from replacing time spent together talking, playing, and reading. It is also expected to reflect evidence and input from parents, which should make it feel closer to real routines rather than a rigid rule. If you’re using iOS, here’s how to reduce screen time.
How it adds up
The same research suggests that screen habits develop quickly. Average daily screen time was 29 minutes at nine months and increased to 127 minutes per day by age two, with 98% of two-year-olds watching television, videos or other digital content daily.
This is well above the World Health Organization’s guideline, which recommends no more than one hour of screen time per day for children aged two to four. That doesn’t mean every family has to achieve a perfect figure overnight, but it explains why authorities want clearer advice for the under-fives.
Newer forms of use were also taken into account in the study. About 19% of two-year-olds played video games, and when games and television were combined, the average total duration was 140 minutes per day. The vocabulary measure was based on a short list of 34 words, and the group with the highest word use knew a lower proportion of these words than the group with the lowest word use. It also noted that a quarter of children scored above a threshold that may indicate possible behavioral or emotional problems.
If you want more control yourself, check out the best parental control apps for iPhone and Android.
What to see before April
The panel drawing up the April guidelines is due to examine the evidence and gather views from parents, and some preschool leaders are pushing for online safety and basic digital skills to be part of the same package.
If you want to get ahead of the game, start by sharing screen time and allowing less background activity. Sit down with your child, talk about what’s going on, and turn passive watching into something you do together. Small switches like this can protect young children’s need to talk and play even before the official instructions are introduced.
