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Australian Kids Screen Time Calculator
Find the recommended daily recreational screen time limit for your child's age, based on the Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines — and check how current usage compares.
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hrs
Daily recreational screen time limit
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What Counts as Screen Time?
✅ Counts as recreational screen time
TV, streaming services (Netflix, Disney+), YouTube, social media, video games, browsing the internet for fun, watching videos on a phone or tablet
📚 Not counted as recreational
Video calls with family (FaceTime, Zoom), homework on a laptop, school apps and educational programs set by teachers, reading e-books
Guidelines by Age
Age group
Daily recreational limit
Source
Under 2 years
None (video calls with family excepted)
Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines
2–5 years
No more than 1 hour per day
Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines
5–17 years
No more than 2 hours per day
Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines
Source: Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Young People (Australian Government Department of Health, 2019). Educational screen use for school purposes is not included in these limits.
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Practical Tips
📵
No screens 1 hour before bed
Blue light from screens suppresses melatonin and makes it harder to fall asleep. Charge devices outside the bedroom at night.
🍽️
Screen-free meal times
Family meals without screens improve conversation, support healthier eating habits, and reduce total daily screen time naturally.
⏰
Set a daily screen budget
Give older children a daily "budget" they manage themselves — this builds self-regulation skills better than blanket bans.
🌳
Replace, don't just restrict
Reducing screen time works best when there are appealing alternatives — outdoor play, crafts, reading, sport. Empty time leads back to screens.
🎮
Not all screen time is equal
Active gaming (dance games, VR), video calls with grandparents, and co-viewing with parents have different impacts than solo passive watching.
👨👩👧
Lead by example
Children model their screen habits from parents. If adults are constantly on phones at home, restrictions for kids are harder to enforce and feel unfair.
Australian screen time guidelines are part of the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Young People (Department of Health, 2019), which cover sleep, physical activity and sedentary time together. For children under 2, no recreational screen time is recommended — screens displace interaction and language development critical at this age. For ages 2–5, the limit is 1 hour per day; for ages 5–17, 2 hours of recreational screen time. Educational use at school is not counted. These guidelines focus on recreational sedentary screen time — they are not intended to restrict video calls with family, school-related digital work, or active screen use. Last updated May 2026.
No. The Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines explicitly state that screen time limits apply to recreational sedentary screen time — not educational use. Homework, school apps, reading e-books, and school-assigned programs are not included. The guidelines are focused on reducing passive, recreational sedentary behaviour.
The guideline for under-2s is no recreational screen time, because this is a critical period for language and social development that screens can displace. That said, high-quality, age-appropriate programs like ABC Kids have limited educational merit. If you do allow viewing for toddlers, Australian health guidelines recommend watching together, keeping sessions very brief, and not using screens as a babysitter.
From a time perspective, both count the same. From a content perspective, research shows interactive games can develop problem-solving, coordination, and even social skills (multiplayer games) — but can also be more addictive and harder to stop than passive TV. The 2-hour limit applies to both. Age-appropriate content ratings (from the Australian Classification Board) matter more for games than the screen time category.
Excessive recreational screen time is associated with reduced physical activity, disrupted sleep (especially from evening screens), delayed language development in toddlers, reduced face-to-face social time, and in older children, increased risk of anxiety and depression. The effects are largely indirect — screens displace more beneficial activities rather than causing direct harm in moderate amounts.
Apps like Screen Time (iOS), Google Family Link (Android), and router-based parental controls can support limits for younger children. For teenagers, research suggests collaborative approaches — setting limits together and explaining the reasoning — work better than technical restrictions alone, which can damage trust and increase screen-seeking behaviour. The goal is building self-regulation, not enforcing compliance.