Overview
- The new official guide caps screen time at one hour a day for children under five and requires adult supervision for under-twos.
- It draws on an expert panel led by Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza, which found prolonged solo screen use can harm sleep, physical activity, creative play, and parent–child interaction.
- The document tells families to avoid fast-paced, highly stimulating content and to use a “screen swap” to replace device time with stories or simple family games.
- Officials highlight how common early use has become, noting that about 98% of children use screens daily by age two and that many parents of 3–5 year-olds struggle to set limits.
- In Spain, national health data show six in ten children spend more than an hour on devices on weekdays, even as usage declines, and pediatric guidance plus school rules such as Andalusia’s smartphone ban are nudging habits toward less screen time.