Screen use

How to limit children’s screen use in settings and ensure it supports children’s learning and development.

This guidance is aimed at nurseries, childminders and pre-school settings, but may be useful for reception year.

Evidence shows that screens can have a big impact on children and their development in the early years. Screen use should be avoided for under 2s and limited to up to an hour a day for children aged 2 to 5. You should take a precautionary approach to using screens in your setting by limiting screen use for children and only use it carefully and intentionally, for specific learning and development aims. This guidance covers managing screens, appropriate content for young children’s brains and advice for working collaboratively with parents and carers on this topic.

Restricting time children spend on screens at home and in early years settings supports healthy child development, which requires sufficient sleep, play, real-world interaction and responsive adult engagement.

Contents on this page

Difference between screen use and screen time

Screen time refers to the amount of time a child spends looking at a screen. Screen use refers to how, why and in what context screens are used. It takes into account the quality and pace of content, purpose and level of engagement.

Screen time advice for children aged 0-5

For children:

• under 2 years - avoid screen time altogether other than in exceptional circumstances such as a video call with parents and carers
• 2-5 years - screen time should be limited to 1 hour a day, less if possible

When thinking about using screens with children in your setting, you should bear in mind that they may already reach these screen time limits at home. You may want to establish a policy on screen use in your setting and share this with parents and carers, to set out if, when and how you use screens.

Evidence suggests that too much screentime is associated with poorer cognitive and behavioural abilities in children, such as reduced verbal activity and reduced vocabulary, and can be associated with developmental delays, reduced attention and lower executive function.

The above time limits do not apply to screen-based assistive technologies for children with SEND. For some children these technologies have essential benefits for communication, well-being and quality of life.

Suitable content for early years children and safety considerations

You should consider the nature of any content you plan to use on a screen, to ensure it is safe, age appropriate and follows the guidelines below.

You should not allow children to access or use screens alone or with other children without adult co-engagement. It is important to view screens with children to protect them from harmful content and to support their development.

All digital content should be:

• checked to ensure it is suitable for early years children, prior to showing it to the children
• slow-paced, repetitive and predictable - you should therefore avoid fast-paced, over-stimulating content - this includes content which has a lot of cuts, movement and flashing on screen, complex audio with lots of fast-talking characters or overlapping music and dialogue, or complex plots
• advert-free, as young children cannot discern between advertisements and other content
• free of scrolling and autoplay features, to ensure children are not inadvertently exposed to inappropriate content or able to access content for longer than planned use - this includes algorithm-driven content, such as video platforms

Apps, software and tools may claim to be educational or designed for children, but this does not mean they are automatically safe or of high quality. Use your professional judgement to carefully assess them against the concepts set out in this guidance before deciding to use them in your setting.

Avoid children using AI until better evidence is available about the impact of use with early years children. This includes toys with in-built AI features. See this page for more information on safety and safeguarding online: Help for early years providers: Internet safety.

Using screens in your setting

Screen use in your setting should be limited, carefully planned and clearly linked to intended learning aims. Teach children about our technologically diverse world by talking to them in an age-appropriate way about different types of technology and how to use them safely.

You should consider how screen use fits into the children’s day and routine, ensuring it does not displace important activities such as sleep, physical activity, time outdoors, story time, and engagement with other children and adults. Screens should not replace high quality educator-child interactions, as direct human interaction provides a much richer experience for children. A story, nursery rhyme or song on a screen cannot match one told and performed by an engaged adult who makes eye contact with the children, uses different voices and facial expressions, and changes pace, volume and emphasis in response to children’s reactions.

Interactive, screen-free activities are preferable. Good practice if you are using a screen involves adults co-engaging with children, prompting children to think, predict, respond or discuss, and avoiding activities which provide an automatic response without any effort on the part of the child.
You can do this through using techniques such as commenting, narrating, describing and open-ended questioning to stimulate conversation with children when using screens.

Practical tips to follow:

• do not allow children to view screens in a passive or sedentary way, without any interaction or communication from educators
• only use screens with children for short periods at a time, to protect children’s ability to focus and concentrate
• screen-free zones: consider designating certain spaces in your setting as permanently screen-free to protect social interaction and learning
• avoid using screens with children during mealtimes or within an hour of a sleep period, as this could affect their sleep quality
• don’t have screens on in the background, as they can distract from activities such as social interaction and active play
• avoid using screens for routine management or to calm children, as this impacts on children’s ability to learn to self-regulate - screens should also not be used to occupy children (including during periods of transition throughout the day) or manage their behaviour

Children with communication needs and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

Some children with SEND or English as an additional language may need a more tailored approach when it comes to screen use. This includes children with communication challenges which may or may not be diagnosed. Screen-based assistive technology can be an important tool to help these children and families communicate, take part in everyday activities, and create an inclusive learning environment. Use your professional judgement to determine whether assistive technologies will support children’s learning on a case-by-case basis.

Supporting parents and carers with their children’s screen use

Guidance for parents and carers on screen use can be found here: Baby and toddler screen time guidance - Best Start in Life.

Parents and carers may look to you for advice and guidance on screen use for their children. You should work in partnership with families to share good practice to support healthy screen use at home.

It is important that parents understand how screens are used in your setting, and what they are used for. There are many ways you could do this, including sharing your policy or approach to screens with parents when children join your setting, providing updates in conversations and handovers, or sending newsletters to share key messages around safe and appropriate use of screens for young children.

You could look to share information with families on recommended daily screentime limits, how screen use can displace other important activities and interactions, and alternative activities to help reduce screen use.

To achieve this, you will need to ensure that your team are aware of best practice, understand your setting’s screen use policies and feel supported so they are confident to offer practical advice and suggestions. It is important to ensure that all communication with parents and carers is non-judgemental and empathetic, recognising the challenges that parents face.

Using screens and digital devices in your day-to-day role

Digital devices support the successful running and management of early years settings in today’s digital world, including engaging with parents and professional services.

For example, digital devices might be used in conducting assessments of children. Pre-reception assessments should not involve asking a child to do activities on a screen in order to determine their level of development but should be based on observation and your professional judgement.

Ensure use of digital devices in assessment and communicating with parents is proportionate, conducted in short stints and does not entail prolonged breaks from interaction with children, nor require excessive administrative burden, to maintain focus on time to engage with and teach children.

For safeguarding purposes, you should keep the number of images or videos taken of children to a minimum, including for assessment purposes, and only share images or videos of children with their parents through technically secure methods.

Screens for business use must comply with the EYFS statutory framework, data protection and security requirements.

Personal devices

In accordance with the EYFS framework, personal devices should be used in compliance with the early years setting’s safeguarding policy. This policy must include how mobile phones, cameras and other electronic devices with imaging and sharing capabilities are used in the setting.

Children should be discouraged from bringing their own devices into your setting and you should discuss this with parents to manage this appropriately on an individual basis.

Devices this guidance applies to

This guidance applies to all digital devices with screens such as, but not limited to:

• tablets
• laptops
• desktop computers
• mobile phones
• television
• gaming devices and toys with screens
• video platforms
• interactive whiteboards
• large touch tables
• e-readers
• smart watches

Reflection

Ask yourself:

• Is the screen use necessary? Are there other methods or resources you could use instead?
• What is the clear educational rationale for using a screen?
• How does it extend and enhance learning, rather than replace the educator’s role?
• How can you ensure children are interacting in screen use and not passively using or watching it? How will you discuss the content with children?
• Is the content designed for educational purposes and appropriate for early years children?
• How can you introduce movement and physical activity?
• Are there any safeguarding risks around the device or content you’re thinking of using? Has it been effectively checked?

Acknowledgements

The Department for Education worked with sector experts to develop and test this guidance and we would like to thank them for their valuable contributions:

• Ka Lai Brightley-Hodges, Head of Coram PACEY

• Katy Potts, chair of the Digital Standards Early Years Action Group

• Members of the Birth to 5 Matters Digital Pedagogy Working Group including Early Education, Fiona Joines, Early Years Consultant, Professor Rachael Bedford, Queen Mary University of London and Dr Sandra Mathers, University of Oxford

• Professor Russell Viner and Dame Rachel de Souza (Children’s Commissioner), co-chairs of the Early Years Screen Time Advisory Group (EYSTAG)

• Prof Sam Wass and Dr Katie Daubney, Institute for the Science of Early Years, University of East London

• Stella Ziolkowski, National Day Nurseries Association

The Department would also like to acknowledge and thank the individual childminders and educators who also contributed to this guidance.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 13 July 2026
• Updated: 13 July 2026

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