Overview
- The Department for Education published national advice on Thursday telling parents to avoid screens for under-twos and keep two- to five-year-olds to about one hour a day.
- The guidance asks families to keep meals and the hour before bed screen-free, choose slow, age-appropriate shows, and watch together rather than let young children view alone.
- Officials say fast-paced social-media-style videos and some AI toys or tools should be avoided, with time limits not applied in the same way to assistive tech used by children with special educational needs.
- Ministers including Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the non-judgmental advice, which draws on an expert review led by Dame Rachel de Souza and Professor Russell Viner and cites research linking heavy toddler screen use to poorer language.
- The move sits alongside a live consultation on stricter rules for older children, with Starmer saying after a US jury’s finding against Meta and Google that he expects curbs on addictive design features and is open to under-16 social-media limits.