New Guidance for Electronic Screen Use by Children Under 5

Toddlers and under-fives are naturally drawn to electronic screens. From TVs and game consoles to tablets and smartphones, these amazingly powerful, colourful devices hold such wonder! After all, they’re rather magical to young minds and can entertain and captivate children in so many ways. However, there have been loud voices of concern lately over how potentially detrimental watching electronic screens may be for our little ones. Indeed, the UK Government has recently published new guidance around the topic, which we’ll explore in today’s post.

There are, of course, pros and cons to children watching electronic screens and a few examples spring to mind:

• Without proper safety measures and oversight in place, screens may lead children to unsafe places, whether on TV, tablets, or smartphones.
• What’s more, many parents also want to keep little ones away from social media as long as possible to keep them safe.
• Other parents, however, like children to have mobiles as a way to track them, for safety purposes, when not in their direct care. This is also understandable.
• The use of electronic screens can also be helpful for children with SEND (special educational needs or disabilities). For example, they may benefit from screen-based assistive technology, an invaluable tool that may help with communication, mobility, and so on.
• Children are naturally captivated by brightly-coloured, moving screen images and stimulating audio. They can therefore be invaluable as a distraction tool when a parent simply needs a few minutes’ peace.
• Older children may not want to miss out on chats, social media, and all the online goings-on that their friends and peers may be up to. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is real for kids. That said, it’s less likely to affect under-fives, who usually have far less, if any, access to it.
• And, to quote the findings of a recent report by Government advisors:

“Some evidence has linked large amounts of screen time with negative effects on children’s health and development, including on social, emotional, language and brain development, sleep, eyesight and healthy weight.” — Findings from the EYSTAG Report

Now, the UK Government has become proactively involved and has made a series of official recommendations. So, let’s take a look today at some recent new guidance for smartphone use by children that was issued in March 2026 by the Government.

What is the New Government Guidance for Screen Time for Children Under Five?

“We’ve created this evidence‑informed guidance to support parents and carers in shaping healthy screen time habits for little brains.” — Gov.uk

In March 2026, the UK Government issued the following recommendations* for electronic screen use by children under five:

• Parents and carers should proactively “Limit total screen time for young children, wherever possible”, they say.
• For children under 2, they recommend that screen time be avoided completely, except where it’s part of a shared family activity that encourages conversations, interactions, and closer bonding. Examples given include activities like viewing photograph albums together, group family/friends video calls, or reading e-books together.
• For children between 2 and 5, they recommend that children should spend no more than 1 hour per day viewing electronic screens — ideally less, and in short chunks of no more than 30 minutes at a time that’s not close to bedtimes or mealtimes. Solo viewing should be minimal.

Such guidelines may not apply to children with SEND, who often use screen-based assistive technologies to help improve quality of life, for example, facilitating enhanced communication with others, mobility, etc. Such children will therefore require a more tailored approach, and parents/carers will need to balance both the potential risks and benefits of screen use for such children.

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“Screen use becomes particularly problematic when it crowds out sleep, physical activity, parent-child interaction, creative play, household routines, real-world exploration or learning.” — EYSTAG Report

What is the New Guidance Based On?

The Government guidance for under-fives follows findings and recommendations made by the independent Early Years Screen Time Advisory Group (EYSTAG), whose full report is available here. They took into account the views of a wide range of stakeholders, including parents, early years professionals, and children themselves, as well as findings from the latest research around the topic. The new Government guidance is therefore evidence-based. It also spans all kinds of screen use for under-fives, including TVs, mobiles/smartphones, tablets and computers.

“The new Government guidance is evidence-based.”

What Else Does the EYSTAG Report Recommend for Families with Children Under Five?

As well as the key recommendations, the EYSTAG report made the following additional recommendations for parents/carers of under-fives, suggesting they should:

• Interact when the child is using an electronic screen. Ask questions, comment on what’s happening there, and so on, just like you might if you were reading a book to them.
• Ensure that children’s use of screens is balanced with activities that are inherently more healthy, for example, creative play, interactions with family and friends, and so on.
• Ensure that little ones achieve the appropriate amount of sleep each night. They cite the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s recommendations of a minimum of 11-14 hours for children aged 1 to 2, and 10 to 13 hours per night for those aged 3 and 4.
• Ensure, as part of that, that children’s bedrooms are screen-free and that no screens are used in the hour before bedtime.
• Ensure children get sufficient physical activity, including screen-free play, each day. The UK’s Chief Medical Officers suggest at least 3 hours per day for under-fives.

“Who uses screens with children, and how they use them, matters. Responsive interaction between parents and children when using screens can prevent harms and promote development for young children.” — EYSTAG Report

Electronic Screen Content Matters

The report also highlighted important conclusions about the type of content being watched on screens by children.

They suggest that “Well-designed content and interactive activities that are appropriate for the child’s age can support young children’s language development, problem solving, memory, and early literacy” and that’s especially so when the content is viewed along with a responsible, supervising, supportive adult or older sibling.

In stark contrast to this, they concluded: “Fast-paced short-form videos raise particular concerns, with suggestions that rapidly changing, highly stimulating content may affect children’s attention and excitement.”

“What children are viewing also matters in determining whether screen use brings harms or benefits” — EYSTAG Report

So, if screens are watched by under-fives, parents should ensure that content is slower-paced, has limited movement, has a decent level of focus on faces, has backgrounds that are simple, and includes some repetition to make it easier for the youngest to understand it more fully. That said, long periods of repeated viewing of the same clips over and over again should be avoided. Content should also avoid speech that is too fast, too many characters speaking at the same time, and images and audio that change constantly. Screens like TVs should also not be on in the background as they could be detrimental to and a distraction from children’s more natural play and learning activities.

Online Safety

The EYSTAG recommendations, against which the new Government guidance has been made, also states some common sense suggestions for parents and carers around the topic of online safety. As one might expect, they include recommendations like using parental controls to limit access to potentially harmful content, ensuring that young children can’t access social media, avoiding access to AI tools, AI-enabled devices, and chatbots, and ensuring that children don’t see potentially harmful content on the phones of parents and carers. Should a parent or carer allow a young child to use their smartphone for a short while, then the EYSTAG recommendation is that they should watch the content with the child at all times to ensure suitability.

Parental Use of Smartphones in Front of Children

As the EYSTAG report states, children are heavily influenced by the behaviour of parents, and therefore if a parent spends significant time ‘doomscrolling’ on a smartphone, children will naturally want to copy. The report goes further to state that “there is growing evidence that parental use in front of young children could negatively impact upon their development or health.”

The main message there is therefore to think about how and how often you use an electronic screen/device in front of young children — as it does impact.

Final Thoughts

Much of this is common sense, of course. Moreover, in its report, EYSTAG recognised that parents always know their child best and the vast majority, of course, have their best interests at heart. Therefore, in tandem to taking on board the Government’s advice, they should therefore trust their instincts.

“Parents should trust their instincts as they make decisions about what is best for their child and for their particular circumstances. However, we recognise that in an ever-changing technological world, trusted and evidence-based information can help parents make informed choices that reflect both their values and their child’s needs” — EYSTAG Report

Little Acorns Nursery, Clayton-le-Woods

A High-Quality Childcare Nursery With its Own Forest School

The staff at Little Acorns Nursery fully understand how important it is to safeguard the wellbeing of children and under-fives around their use of screens. As part of that, children at the nursery regularly attend Forest School sessions, which get them outside, close to nature, which is so good for them. There, they learn about the world as well as hone a vast array of new skills as they play, explore, and discover. It’s a wonderful antidote to electronic screens! Learn more about Forest School in our ultimate guide.

Nursery Places in Clayton-le-Woods, Near Chorley

Are you looking for a nursery place for your child in the Clayton or Chorley area? If so, we would welcome your application. We are Little Acorns Nursery (Clayton-le-Woods, Chorley), are a good childcare provider according to Ofsted, and support funded places for eligible children. The nursery day also supports working parents by opening at 7:30 am and closing at 6:00 pm. If that sounds of interest to you for your child, please get in touch — we’d love to hear from you.

To explore a possible nursery place for your child at Little Acorns, please select an option below to get started:

Little Acorns is a high-quality childcare nurser in Clayton-le-Woods and may be convenient for those living or working nearby in such places as Clayton Brook, Clayton Green, Chorley, Penwortham, Farington, Bamber Bridge, Leyland, Thorpe Green, Whittle-le-Woods, Lostock Hall, Pippin Street, Buckshaw Village, and Euxton.