Screen Time By Age Calculator

Work out screen time by age instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Screen Time By Age Calculator

Guides follow the commonly cited paediatric bands: none under two, about an hour of high quality content for ages two to five, and roughly two hours of recreational screen time for school age children. The weekly excess is the figure that lands: forty minutes a day over the guide is nearly five extra hours a week taken from sleep, play or reading.

Formulas

Daily guide

under 2: 0 min; ages 2-5: 60 min; ages 6-12: 120 min; teens: about 150 min of recreational screen time

Weekly excess

weekly excess = max(0, current - guide) x 7

Worked example

With the default values below, Screen Time By Age Calculator returns Suggested daily limit of 120. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Child's ageaccepts 1–18 years: 8 years
Current recreational screen time per dayminimum 0 min: 180 min

Results

Suggested daily limit: 120 min
Minutes above or below the guide: 60 min
Current time as a share of the guide: 150.0%
Extra screen time per week: 420 min

Step by step

1Values used
2Daily guide
3Weekly excess
4Suggested daily limit= 120 min
5Minutes above or below the guide= 60 min
6Current time as a share of the guide= 150.0
7Extra screen time per week= 420 min

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 2 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 1 decimal place, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the Screen Time By Age figure worked out?

under 2: 0 min; ages 2-5: 60 min; ages 6-12: 120 min; teens: about 150 min of recreational screen time. Guides follow the commonly cited paediatric bands: none under two, about an hour of high quality content for ages two to five, and roughly two hours of recreational screen time for school age children.

Why does this matter?

The weekly excess is the figure that lands: forty minutes a day over the guide is nearly five extra hours a week taken from sleep, play or reading.

What do I need to enter?

Enter child's age, current recreational screen time per day. The defaults shown are a realistic worked example — swap in your own figures to get a result you can use.