How much screen time is too much for a child?
I would keep recreational screens limited, rather than let them become the default way a child spends spare time. When screens are used, I would look for shared experiences and protect room for sleep, movement, play and relationships.
Screens can make a busy household possible for a while. They can also become the answer to almost every gap: waiting, boredom, the end of school, the time before dinner. Before long, stopping can be one of the hardest parts of the day.
If that pattern is familiar, blaming the child will not help. We are asking them to leave an absorbing activity in a world designed to hold their attention. Adults need to help shape the pattern, including what happens instead.
Australian screen time guidance by age
Australian guidance recommends no sedentary screen time under two, no more than one hour a day from two to five, and no more than two hours of sedentary recreational screen time for ages five to seventeen. Schoolwork is excluded from the school-age recreational limit.[S1–S2]
Those are useful reference points, not the only questions to ask. Is screen use displacing sleep, meals, movement or time with other people? What is the child watching or doing? Is it safe and suitable for their age? What happens before and after?
Communication aids and essential access tools are not interchangeable with entertainment. Keep the support a child needs available while reviewing recreational use.
Share the experience
There is a difference between everyone disappearing into a separate stream and sharing something together. A family programme, siblings choosing a show they both like or a parent sitting with a child can create an interest to talk about afterwards.
Where it fits your family, make recreational viewing more shared and intentional. Choose the content, agree on a stopping point and take an interest in what your child is experiencing. Co-viewing is supported in paediatric media guidance, particularly for young children.[S3]
Being together does not make any content or any amount of use harmless. It gives an adult a better opportunity to understand and guide it, and it can make the activity less isolating.
Plan what comes instead
If screens have become a major source of entertainment or company, simply removing them can leave a large empty space. Plan a manageable change and a replacement that offers something: connection, movement, making, rest or shared interest.
This does not mean becoming your child's full-time entertainer. It may be a short walk, helping with dinner, a familiar game or sitting together while they draw. Start with a moment your family can realistically support. Gradual changes may be more workable than an abrupt overhaul.
Plan endings before the activity begins. Turn off autoplay where possible and give help with the transition. Distress at switching off is information about the pattern; it is not a reason to shame the child or, on its own, evidence of addiction.
Be curious about the educational label
A game being marketed as educational does not answer whether it suits this child now. What are they learning? Are they using what they learn away from the screen? Are sleep, relationships or daily life still being affected?
Persistent conflict, loss of other valued activities or effects on wellbeing deserve a closer look and, where needed, professional help. The aim is a life with more room for connection and ordinary experience, not just a lower number on a screen-time report.
Sources
Does this sound like your child?
No referral is needed. Tell us what a day looks like at home, and we will talk it through before anything else.