How much screen time is okay for a young child?

For ages two to four, the World Health Organization says no more than one hour of sedentary screen time a day, and less is better. The Indian Academy of Pediatrics says the same for two to five, supervised, and under two hours from five to ten. Under two: none. That is the number. The rest is what the hour is for.

Every parent has googled this at some point, usually at 9pm, usually after a day when the tablet did more babysitting than planned. So the number comes first, and the useful part comes after it.

What do the guidelines say, age by age?

The WHO guideline from 2019 is the one most others lean on. Under one year: no screen time. At one: none. At two: no more than one hour, and less is better. At three and four: no more than one hour, and less is better. The Indian Academy of Pediatrics wrote its own guidance in 2022, for Indian homes, and it lines up: no screens below two years, at most one hour of supervised screen time a day from two to five, and under two hours a day from five to ten. The American Academy of Pediatrics says about an hour a day of high-quality programmes for ages two to five, watched together, and a video call with family is the one exception it makes for the very young.

Why is the number the small half of the advice?

Read those documents closely and you notice something. All three spend less ink on the hour and more on what the hour replaces. The real worry is not the screen. It is the sleep, the play, the running, and above all the talking that a screen quietly eats. An hour of cartoons in a day full of conversation is a different thing from an hour of cartoons in a day of silence. The guideline is a fence. The field inside it is language.

There is research behind that last sentence. A 2018 study recorded the home language of 36 children aged four to six, then watched their brains work while they listened to a story. The children who had more back-and-forth conversation with adults showed more activity in the brain's language region, and that held whatever the family's income and however many words the child simply overheard. The turns mattered, not the volume.

Does it matter what they watch?

Yes, and the AAP is specific about it. Slow, simple programmes beat fast ones, because young children cannot follow quick cuts and learn less from them. Apps stuffed with distracting extras teach less than plain ones. Anything violent is out. And the biggest single lever is the cheapest: sit with them. A child who watches beside a parent who talks about what is on the screen gets something closer to a conversation than to a screen.

What about the hour before bed?

Keep it screen-free. The AAP asks for no screens in the hour before bedtime and none in the bedroom, and sleep is when the day's learning gets filed away. If the evening routine leans on a screen to wind down, move the screen earlier and put a story, a song or a bath in its place. It takes about a week to feel normal.

What do you actually do at 6pm?

Knowing the number does not cook dinner. A few things that work in real houses: pick the screen window in advance and tell your child when it ends, so the end is not a surprise. Put something after it that they like, so the end is a beginning. Keep the screen in the shared room, not the bedroom. And when you can, sit with them for a few minutes of it and talk.

If the evening still collapses without a screen, you do not need more discipline. You need a better alternative. Something that answers back.

That is the gap we are building Kheelu for: a screen-free friend that talks, in the languages you speak at home. But screen or no screen, the hour is yours to place. The talking is the part that cannot be skipped. If you want the named rules parents pass around, and which ones have evidence behind them, read the 3-6-9-12 rule and the others parents swear by.