Before the age of one, the World Health Organization advises against any screen time at all; from age two, it sets a limit of one hour a day. Between one and four, play and physical activity should come first. Psychiatrist Serge Tisseron agrees with this benchmark: no screens before the age of three.
Before age two: what benchmarks for toddlers?
sitting a toddler in front of the television is like serving them mental food that’s already been pre-digested
The World Health Organization has published guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under five. These benchmarks offer a reassuring framework for your child’s very earliest months, even before they can walk or talk.
In practice, the WHO recommends not putting a one-year-old in front of a screen, whether television, video or video games. From age two, it sets a benchmark of one hour a day of screen time. You can lean on this framework without anxiety: it draws a clear line, not a judgement on your everyday choices.
From age three to school: how do you keep play at the centre?
Before school starts, what matters isn't so much the time spent in front of a screen as what that time takes away from the child. The World Health Organization recommends that children aged one to four spend at least three hours a day on varied physical activities, with sleep protected, naps included. Screen time, it points out, is precisely the main driver of sedentary behaviour in children, an observation shared by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Paediatric Society.
According to Dr Juana Willumsen of the WHO, the real question is putting play back at the centre of a child's life: less time sitting in front of a screen, more movement and activity replaced by free play. French psychiatrist Serge Tisseron agrees with this benchmark. He sets the first limit at age three: no screens before then. Both agree on one point: protect play before you start counting the minutes.
Should you really negotiate with your child?
Negotiating with your child over screens is not a sign of weakness: it's an acknowledgement that every child is going through different realities, and that dialogue, depending on their age, naturally takes the shape of a conversation. Screens then find their place in family life without becoming a daily battleground.
There’s a nuance that often gets forgotten: a child in front of a screen isn’t taking in the same material as a child face to face with you. Author Joseph Chilton Pierce (Magical Child, Evolution’s End) argues that even a loving home can, without meaning to, do the child a disservice when a screen takes over from the parental bond. In his view, sitting a toddler in front of the television is like serving them mental food that’s already been pre-digested, a world away from the living exchange you offer them by negotiating, precisely, with them.
What simple habits make for a calmer home?
In Tunisia, Orange Tunisie has put together a guide to positive screen habits, designed to answer the questions you face day to day and offer real, practical pointers. Drawing on a local initiative gives you, at home, a simple benchmark rather than an abstract command.
A limit only works if it’s kept. Up to the age of nine, a child perceives a broken promise as a form of lying: promising them a trip to the park with no intention of keeping it amounts, in their eyes, to being deceived. The same goes for screens: set a simple rule, and stick to it, for your own sake as much as theirs.
Ultimately, these benchmarks aren’t there to turn your evenings into a stopwatch exercise: they open up a conversation, to be revisited and adjusted as your child grows. What matters more than the minute on the clock is the time you give them face to face, the play you share, the evening ritual you keep, and the example you set yourself in front of your own screens. A family that allows itself to negotiate, to reconsider its choices and to stay present says far more than any stopwatch.
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