Screen Time Recommendations
for New Parents
STARTING EARLY
Have a plan
Avoiding screens during the early years of a child’s life—particularly from birth to age four—is crucial due to the significant impact these formative years have on brain development, social skills, and overall well-being.
Having a plan in place from the very beginning will make it easier to ensure your new child starts life with the rich and varied experiences that lead to them being happy, healthy and well-rounded individuals.
STEP 1
Before Baby Is Born
Set agreements with your partner (make sure you’re in agreement about the whole timeline, not just the first couple of years). Spend some time talking about what is important to you and why and ensure that you’re on the same page.
Share these agreements with the people close to you. Anybody who is going to be a part of your child’s first few years of life needs to understand and respect the screen limits you set. This means grandparents, aunts, uncles, family friends, babysitters, and anybody else who will be caring for your baby. It may be a tough conversation to have if they’re not in agreement with your viewpoints, but your job is to hold the line.
Change your own screen habits. Set yourself up to care for your baby without screens involved: no scrolling while breastfeeding, no watching TV in bed together, etc.
STEP 2
Welcome Baby to a Screen-Free World
While your baby is between the ages of 0-4, we recommend they have basically zero exposure to screens. This means that parents, loved ones, babysitters, and childcare staff should do everything they can to ensure that they aren’t spending time on screens while around the child.
While it’s impossible to be perfect about this (and that’s not really what matters), it is very important that this is made a priority.
Video calls with close family members are an exception, but should be as infrequent as possible. Encourage family members to come visit in person!
STEP 3
Real, rich, experience-based childhood
As your child continues to grow, prioritize a real, rich, experience-based childhood for them.
No app, film, show, or device is a substitute for all the many real experiences children need to grow up mentally and physically strong.
The fast-paced, overstimulating content often found in digital media conditions young children to expect constant stimulation. This makes it harder for them to engage in activities that require sustained attention and patience.
Screen time also reduces or even eliminates opportunities for imaginative and creative play, which are critical for cognitive development. Children learn to solve problems, explore their environment, and develop independence through play. Screen-based activities limit these experiences, leading to passive consumption of content rather than active engagement with the world.
Habits formed in early childhood can be difficult to change later. By minimizing screen time from the start and continuing to make this a priority, parents can help establish healthier habits that promote physical activity, social interaction, and creativity.
Early and frequent exposure to screens can lead to a dependency on digital devices for entertainment, calming, or distraction. This dependency can be challenging to break and can lead to screen addiction as the child grows older, which is associated with various negative outcomes including obesity, attention problems, and social difficulties.
We provide age-based screen time guidance and encourage families to review this and adapt it to their families. You can view this guidance here.