Screen time with young children
We write about what happens between the moment a child gets the phone and the moment they put it down. No panic, and no promise that any of it works on the first try.
How to set up your Android phone before handing it to your child
Locked purchases, silenced notifications, app pinning, offline content: what to set once and what to check every time you hand over your phone.
· 5 min readScreens before bedtime: what to do in the last hour of the evening
Why evening screens keep young children awake, how to move the episode earlier and which bedtime routine replaces the phone. Plus what to say.
· 5 min readThe child who only eats with cartoons on: getting the phone off the table
The phone propped against a glass, the same cartoon every meal. Why it happens, how to wean off it step by step, and rules for parents' phones too.
· 5 min readFast-paced cartoons: why some kids come off the screen wired and cranky
Why some cartoons leave kids wound up and cranky, what a 2011 study found, and how to spot fast-paced content and swap in slower alternatives.
· 5 min readGrandparents and screen time: agreeing on rules without a fight
When grandparents hand over the phone freely: why it happens, how to agree on rules without a fight, and how to make it easy for them.
· 6 min readIn-app purchases and kids: how to lock them and what to do if they already bought
How kids end up buying things in games, how to lock Google Play purchases, and what to do if your child has already bought something.
· 5 min readScreen time at weekends, on holiday and on sick days: how flexible should the rules be?
Weekends and holidays tend to unravel screen rules. A flexible but predictable plan for 3–8 year-olds, and how to get back on track on Monday.
· 5 min read“I’m bored”: what to do when your child doesn’t have the phone
Why boredom after screen time is useful, how to get through the first 10 minutes without handing the phone back, and how to make a boredom jar.
· 5 min readFamily screen time rules: a simple plan you make with your child
How to write a simple screen plan with your 3–8 year-old: five rules, where devices live, clear consequences and an example to stick on the fridge.
· 6 min readScreen time as reward or punishment: why it backfires and what works
Why using screen time as a reward or punishment backfires, what to do instead, and the one reward that works: stars for stopping on time.
· 5 min readSiblings and screen time: how to share it without fights
Two children, one phone or two, the same argument: “he had longer”. How to set fair rules for siblings of different ages.
· 5 min readHanding your child the phone at restaurants, in the car and at the doctor's
Sometimes the phone is the only option. How to hand it over for 20 minutes in public without your child wandering into other apps or a scene at the end.
· 5 min readWhat to do after screen time: 25 simple activities by age
“Phone down” goes more smoothly when something concrete comes next. 25 activities of 5–20 minutes for children aged 3–8, with no long preparation.
· 5 min readAds in kids' games: where they come from and how to keep them in check
Almost every game for young children has ads. Why they appear, what Google Play's rules say and six concrete ways to cut them down.
· 6 min readHow much screen time is right at 3, 5 and 8
What the WHO and the American Academy of Pediatrics actually recommend, why the fixed number disappears after age 6, and what makes a limit hold at home.
· 7 min readWhat to do when your child cries as you take the phone away
It is not spoiling. It is a transition problem. Five things that change how screen time ends for children aged 3 to 8.
· 8 min read