There is a number only for the youngest ages. Before age 2 almost everyone agrees: the WHO does not recommend screens, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asks that they be avoided before 18 months except for video calls, allowing quality content watched with an adult between 18 and 24 months. From 2 to 4 according to the WHO and from 2 to 5 according to the AAP, one hour a day at most, and the less the better; the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) asks that screens be avoided until age 6. From age 6, the AAP and Canadian pediatrics give no figures: they ask that screens not displace sleep, physical activity or school. The AEP keeps caps: one hour until 12 and two after that.
Almost everything you read about screen time merges guidelines from different bodies into a single expert recommendation that none of them signed as such. This guide separates them by age and links to each text: what the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Spanish Association of Pediatrics say, and what the Canadian Paediatric Society adds. It also says where they disagree, because they do disagree, and why from age 6 most of them give no number. The phone rules for each stage are covered in another guide; this one is about the minutes and about what weighs more than the minutes.
The World Health Organization, in its 2019 guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep for children under 5, is categorical: for children under 1 year, screen time is not recommended, and for 1-year-olds, sedentary screen time is not recommended either. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) agrees: before 18 months it asks that media use be avoided with a single exception, video calls; between 18 and 24 months, if you decide to introduce digital content, it should be high quality and watched together. The Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) goes further and, for ages 0 to 6, limits digital use to video calls with family and friends, kept short and with a specific purpose. With a baby, the question is not how much but when it starts, and the answer from all three is the same: not yet.
The number everyone repeats comes from here. The WHO phrases it the same way for 2-year-olds and for 3- and 4-year-olds: sedentary screen time should be no more than one hour, and less is better. The AAP agrees on the figure: from 2 to 5, limit use to one hour a day of high-quality programming, watched with an adult who helps the child understand what they are seeing. The AEP does not share it: its Plan Digital Familiar groups ages 0 to 6 into a single bracket and says to avoid use, there is no safe amount of time. It is not a minor nuance: if you follow the AEP, a 4-year-old does not get their hour; if you follow the WHO or the AAP, they get it at most. None of the three disputes the direction: less is better, and the hour is a ceiling, not a goal.
From age 6 most bodies give no figure, and that is a deliberate choice. The AAP, in its 2016 recommendations, asks for children 6 and older consistent limits on time and type of content, with no cap on hours. What it does specify, on another page for families, is what must not be displaced: between 8 and 12 hours of sleep depending on age, one hour of physical activity a day and time away from media. The Canadian Paediatric Society, in its 2019 position statement, reaffirmed in 2025, does not set hours either: it prioritizes face-to-face interaction, sleep and physical activity over screens. The exception is the AEP: from 7 to 12, less than one hour a day, including school time and homework. If your child sleeps what they need, moves for an hour and keeps up with school, the rest is rules, and those are in the phone rules by age guide.
With teenagers no North American body gives a total number of hours, but all of them agree on one limit: sleep. The AAP recommends that teenagers put all screens away at least an hour before bedtime and charge devices outside the bedroom, and explains why: those who have a TV, a computer or a phone in their room fall asleep later and sleep less. The Canadian Paediatric Society asks for the same: avoid screens at least an hour before bed and discourage recreational use in the bedroom. The AEP widens the margin to one or two hours before bedtime, with devices switched off and out of the room, and is once again the only one with a total figure: from 13 to 16, less than two hours a day, including schoolwork. Which rule about place pays off most at each stage, and how to sustain it, is in the phone rules by age guide.
Minutes are the easy part to count and the least informative. The AAP does not talk about one hour, full stop, but about one hour of high-quality programming, and describes the parents' role as being their children's media mentors: choosing what they watch, watching it with them and helping them understand it. Canadian pediatrics says the same: be present when screens are used and, whenever possible, watch together and talk about the content. Context weighs just as much: the AAP asks for media-free times, such as meals, and screen-free zones, such as bedrooms. An hour of a documentary on the sofa with an adult and an hour of short videos alone in bed at eleven at night add up to the same on a counter and are nothing alike. Before arguing about the number, look at what the content is, who they are with and what time it is.
The guidelines give few clinical signs and it is best not to invent them. The AAP describes a pattern it calls problematic internet use, in which the child spends most of their free time online and shows less interest in relationships away from the screen, and points to the most measurable effect, on sleep: with a screen in the bedroom they fall asleep later and sleep less. To that you can add practical signs, which are not a diagnosis but reasons to look: disproportionate anger every time you take the device away, dropping activities they used to enjoy, a fall in school performance that coincides with more hours of screen time, and lying about how much they used it or using it at night when you thought they were asleep. None of these signs says much on its own; several at once, sustained over time, do. If you see them, the first step is not an app but a conversation, and the second, if they persist, their pediatrician. And if these signs come together with new contacts, gifts they cannot explain or deleted conversations, look at the guide on signs of grooming: that is a different problem.
The rules that survive have three things in common. First, they apply to moments and places, not to a counter: the AEP asks that during meals devices be silenced and out of the room, and for the night it sums it up as the bedroom is for sleeping and exposure to screens affects sleep. A rule about place enforces itself; a rule about minutes needs someone to police it. Second, example: the Canadian Paediatric Society asks parents to review their own media habits. Third, the alternative: the same Canadian guidance recommends planning time for other hobbies, outdoor play and activities, because taking the screen away without filling that gap produces a new negotiation every afternoon. Which apps, which passwords and how much independence fit each stage is in the phone rules by age guide.
Getting a limit to hold without arguing about it every day does not require a paid app. Google Family Link lets you set a bedtime or daily usage limits on the supervised device, from your own phone, and the Google account it needs is created at no charge. Digital Wellbeing, which comes on many Android phones though not all, is managed by whoever uses the phone: it shows which apps were opened and for how long and lets you put a timer on each one; it works with a teenager who wants to regulate themselves and, with a PIN, keeps the limit from being wiped in two taps. The steps for both are in the Android parental controls guide. CatWatchful does not compete there: it does not set time limits or block apps. It shows who your child talks to and, on the Gold and Platinum plans, which apps they use and when, so it is useful when your question is no longer how much time but what happens in that time, always with your child's knowledge and in proportion to their age. If your problem is hours, start with Family Link; if it is content and contacts, it is worth looking at a supervision app.
For the guidelines, yes. The WHO defines the time it limits as sedentary activities in front of a screen, and gives as examples watching TV or videos and playing computer games. The AAP, when talking about sleep, puts the TV, the computer and the mobile device in the bedroom in the same sentence. What changes between a TV and a phone is not whether it counts, but how much easier it is to take to bed.
They are the exception for the youngest. The AAP asks that media use be avoided before 18 months except for video calls, and the AEP limits digital use from 0 to 6 to video calls with family and friends, kept short and with a specific purpose. Neither of the two counts them as the use it limits; what they ask is that they be brief and with someone on the other end talking to the child.
It depends on whom you ask. The AEP includes it: its caps of less than one hour from 7 to 12 and less than two from 13 to 16 are understood to include school time and homework. The AAP and Canadian pediatrics give no number: what they ask is whether the total displaces sleep, movement and school. If homework is done on a screen, adjust the recreational time.
The most cited figure comes from Common Sense Media: a survey of 1,306 young people aged 8 to 18 in the United States, from 2021. Those aged 8 to 12 used five and a half hours a day (5:33) and those aged 13 to 18, eight and a half (8:39), in recreational use. They are not exclusive hours, the report clarifies: part of it overlaps with other activities or with two screens at once. There is no verified figure for Mexico, Colombia or Argentina.
You cannot know from home, and this guide cannot tell you. The AAP does not talk about screen addiction but about a pattern of problematic internet use: most free time spent online and less interest in relationships away from the screen. If you see that, together with sustained changes in sleep, mood or performance, consult the pediatrician. Putting the label on it yourself tends to close the conversation instead of opening it.
As a consequence announced in advance, proportionate and with an end date, it can work; as a surprise punishment it usually teaches your child that telling you what happens on the phone costs them the phone, and they stop telling you. Taking the device away does not teach them to use it either. It is not a question of minutes: the phone rules by age guide goes into which consequences work and which do not.
This guide gathers public recommendations from health and pediatric bodies; it is not medical or psychological advice and it has not been reviewed by a health professional. The guidelines cited do not agree on everything, they change over time and none of them replaces what you know about your child. If you notice sustained changes in sleep, mood, performance or behavior tied to screens, consult their pediatrician.
Related guides: Phone rules by age · What age for a first phone? · Parental controls on Android · Alternatives to Google Family Link · Signs of grooming & cyberbullying