The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has published guidelines to help parents manage children’s screen time. Titled “The health impacts of screen time: a guide for clinicians and parents”, the guidance says that there is no ‘safe’ level of screen time and not all screen time is harmful.

It is recommended that “families should negotiate screen time limits with their children based upon the needs of an individual child, the ways in which screens are used and the degree to which use of screens appears to displace (or not) physical and social activities and sleep”.

The guidelines include four key questions for families to help examine their use of technology:

• Is screen time controlled in your household?
• Does screen use interfere with what your family want to do?
• Does screen use interfere with sleep?
• Are you able to control snacking during screen time?

If a family are satisfied with their answers to these questions, then they are likely to be handling screen time well.

The guidance also advises parents to think about their own media use. “It may be that what you are doing on your phone is important, but it is worth pausing to reflect, if your children are around and available for interaction, whether it can wait.”