Screens, gaming, social media and online entertainment are now a normal part of childhood and adolescence.

For many families, the difficulty is not simply whether children use screens, but how much they use them, what the screen is replacing, how difficult it is to stop, and whether screen use is beginning to interfere with sleep, relationships, school, physical activity or family life.

Parents may also find themselves dealing with arguments, repeated requests for “five more minutes”, difficulty transitioning away from gaming, late-night device use or intense emotional reactions when screen time ends.

These situations can be exhausting.

The goal does not need to be removing technology from a child’s life. Instead, we can help children and teenagers develop a healthier relationship with technology while maintaining appropriate boundaries, supporting emotional regulation and making sure digital activities do not continually replace the other experiences children need for healthy development.

How much screen time is recommended?

For Australian children and young people, current national movement guidelines recommend:

For school-aged children and teenagers, this recommendation refers to recreational sedentary screen use such as gaming, social media, streaming and entertainment. It does not include screen use required for schoolwork.

In weekly terms, one hour a day is approximately 7 hours per week, while two hours a day is approximately 14 hours per week.

However, it is usually more helpful to think about healthy patterns across each day rather than treating the weekly amount like an allowance that can be accumulated and used in one long session.

For older children and teenagers, current guidance also increasingly recognises that hours alone do not tell us whether screen use is healthy or problematic.

A teenager spending two hours online talking with friends, creating music or learning a skill may be having a very different digital experience from someone spending the same amount of time compulsively scrolling content that leaves them distressed.

The more useful questions are:

What are they doing online?

What is screen time taking the place of?

Can they stop when they need to?

Is it interfering with sleep, movement, school, relationships or everyday life?

Screen time is not automatically harmful

Digital media can have benefits.

Gaming can provide enjoyment, creativity, problem-solving, mastery and social connection.

Online environments can also be particularly meaningful for some neurodivergent young people who may find particular games, interests or online communities enjoyable, predictable or socially accessible.

The concern is not simply that a child enjoys screens.

Problems are more likely when screen use repeatedly replaces important parts of life or becomes very difficult for the young person to control.

Research in this area is largely observational, which means we should be careful about saying that screen use directly causes a particular mental-health problem.

Greater amounts of digital-media use have been associated with outcomes including poorer sleep, reduced physical activity, attention difficulties and poorer wellbeing in some groups, but effects vary considerably according to the child, the content and the context in which media is being used.

Start by asking what the screen is doing for your child

Before reducing screen time, it can be helpful to understand why it has become so important.

Some children use gaming because they love competition and achievement.

Others use screens because they are bored.

Some teenagers are online because that is where their friendships are.

A child who feels socially unsuccessful at school may feel highly competent in a gaming environment.

Another child may use videos or gaming after school because they feel emotionally or sensory overwhelmed and screens help them switch off.

For a child with ADHD, stimulating digital environments may be particularly engaging because they provide novelty, immediate feedback and frequent rewards.

For an autistic child, gaming or digital activities may provide predictability, focused interests, social connection or a way to recover following a demanding day.

This means that simply removing the device may sometimes remove a coping strategy without addressing the need underneath it.

A useful question for parents is:

“What need is this activity helping my child meet?”

Once we understand that, we can begin developing additional ways for the child to meet that need.

Establish predictable boundaries before screen time begins

Limits tend to work better when children know about them before they become deeply absorbed in a game or activity.

Agree beforehand when screen time starts and finishes.

For example:

“You can play from 4.00 until 5.30, and then we will have dinner.”

This is often more effective than waiting until the parent decides the child has been playing long enough and suddenly announcing:

“Turn it off now.”

Predictability can be especially helpful for children who find transitions difficult.

The limit does not need to become a daily negotiation.

Give transition warnings

Many children benefit from knowing that screen time is going to end.

A warning at 15 minutes, followed by five minutes, can help the nervous system begin preparing for the transition.

Visual timers can be particularly useful for children who struggle with time awareness or who become deeply focused on an activity.

For gaming, parents can also learn enough about the game to identify reasonable stopping points.

There is a difference between:

“Finish this round and then we’re done.”

and suddenly turning off the internet halfway through a multiplayer game in which several other players are involved.

Understanding the activity does not mean the child controls the boundary.

It simply makes the boundary more realistic.

Create a predictable activity after screen time

One of the most useful strategies can be making the transition toward something, rather than simply taking something away.

For example:

gaming → snack → outside

tablet → shower → music

YouTube → dinner

gaming → walk the dog

screen time → basketball

Moving directly from a highly stimulating digital activity to:

“Now go and find something to do.”

can be difficult for some children.

Having a predictable next step can support the transition while the child gradually develops greater capacity to manage these shifts independently.

Protect sleep

Sleep is one of the clearest areas where screen habits matter.

Current Australian recommendations advise avoiding screens for around one hour before bedtime and keeping screens out of bedrooms where possible. Children aged 5–13 generally need around 9–11 hours of sleep, while teenagers aged 14–17 generally need around 8–10 hours.

Practical strategies might include having devices charge overnight in a shared area, using a separate alarm clock rather than a phone, scheduling device downtime and establishing a predictable bedtime routine.

A child who is chronically tired will also have greater difficulty with attention, frustration tolerance and emotional regulation, which can make screen-related conflict worse.

Keep some parts of family life screen-free

Rather than constantly monitoring every minute, it can be easier to create predictable times and places where screens simply are not used.

Useful examples include family meals, bedrooms overnight, the hour before sleep and times when family members are actively spending time together.

Adults should ideally follow many of the same rules.

Children notice when parents tell them to put away a device while continuing to scroll through their own phone.

The goal is not parental perfection. It is modelling the type of balanced technology use we hope children eventually develop themselves.

Look at quality as well as quantity

Not all digital experiences are equivalent.

Current child-development guidance increasingly distinguishes between high-quality, purposeful media and digital environments designed primarily to maximise engagement.

Some platforms use features such as autoplay, endless scrolling, repeated rewards, notifications and algorithmic recommendations to keep users engaged for longer.

Children therefore need support learning not only when to stop, but also how digital environments are designed to capture their attention.

This is an important part of digital literacy.

Parents can talk openly with older children about why games and platforms use rewards, notifications and recommendations and help them gradually recognise when technology is influencing their behaviour.

Avoid making screens the only way to regulate emotions

Screens can sometimes be useful for relaxation.

The concern arises when a child gradually learns:

bored → screen

upset → screen

anxious → screen

tired → screen

angry → screen

every time they experience an uncomfortable internal state.

Children also need opportunities to develop other ways of regulating themselves.

Depending on the child, alternatives might involve movement, music, drawing, talking, spending time outside, pets, sensory activities, sport, reading, quiet time or simply learning how to tolerate a little boredom.

This does not mean never allowing screens when a child is upset.

The aim is to ensure that technology does not become their only regulation strategy.

During a meltdown, use fewer words

When a child is highly dysregulated because screen time has ended, lengthy explanations are unlikely to help.

Try to keep communication calm and brief.

For example:

“I know you’re really disappointed. Screen time is finished. We can talk about it when you’re calmer.”

Parents can acknowledge the emotion while keeping the boundary:

“I can see you’re really angry.”

does not mean:

“Because you’re angry, I’ll give the device back.”

Children can learn that strong emotions are acceptable while limits remain predictable.

Avoid turning the device into a physical battle

Where possible, avoid tug-of-war situations over phones, tablets and gaming controllers.

Physical struggles can quickly escalate arousal for both parent and child.

Instead, consider using device settings, parental controls, timers, household Wi-Fi settings or agreed routines so that the limit does not always depend on physically removing the device.

If a child’s behaviour becomes unsafe, safety comes first.

Use parental controls as support—not surveillance alone

Parental controls can be useful for setting age-appropriate limits around time, purchases, downloads, contacts and content.

They can also reduce some of the repeated conflict between parent and child.

However, technology controls work best alongside ongoing conversations.

As children move toward adolescence, the longer-term goal is not simply for parents to control technology externally.

It is to help young people develop their own ability to recognise healthy and unhealthy patterns of use.

Stay interested in your child’s digital world

Parents do not need to become gaming experts, but curiosity helps.

Ask your child what they enjoy.

Watch them play occasionally.

Ask them to explain the game.

Find out who they play with.

Talk about what they see online.

This creates opportunities for connection as well as safety conversations.

For some children and teenagers, particularly those who have meaningful online friendships, dismissing their digital life as “not real” can close communication rather than improve it.

Consider the whole child

When screen use becomes very difficult to manage, look beyond the device.

Ask whether your child is experiencing:

anxiety, low mood, bullying, loneliness, academic difficulty, family stress, ADHD, autism, sleep difficulties, emotional regulation challenges or social problems.

The American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2026 guidance specifically recommends looking for underlying difficulties such as ADHD, anxiety and depression when problematic media use is present.

This does not mean every child who plays games excessively has an underlying disorder.

It means significant screen problems sometimes tell us that something else also deserves attention.

When should parents seek additional help?

Professional support may be worth considering when gaming or screen use is persistently associated with significant family conflict, aggression, severe distress when asked to stop, major sleep disruption, declining school attendance or performance, withdrawal from previously enjoyed activities, inability to reduce use despite repeated attempts, or deterioration in everyday functioning.

Importantly, enjoying gaming intensely or becoming frustrated when it ends does not automatically mean a child has an addiction.

The World Health Organization’s diagnosis of gaming disorder requires a persistent pattern involving impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities and continued gaming despite significant negative consequences, with meaningful impairment in everyday functioning.

Parents do not need to wait until a child meets diagnostic criteria before seeking help.

The goal is balance—not fear of technology

Technology is part of children’s lives and is unlikely to disappear.

The goal is therefore not to create a child who never uses screens.

We want children and teenagers to gradually develop a relationship with technology in which they can enjoy digital activities while still having enough room in their lives for:

sleep, movement, learning, family, relationships, creativity, time outside, responsibilities and other interests.

Healthy technology use ultimately involves more than counting hours.

It involves helping children develop awareness, flexibility, self-regulation and the ability to choose when technology is useful—and when it is time to put it down.

When screen time has become a battle, parents do not need to respond only with stricter rules.

Sometimes the most useful starting point is:

“What is making this difficult for my child, and what skills or support might help?”

Current evidence and resources

This article draws on current guidance from the Australian Government’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2026 policy statement Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents, the World Health Organization’s guidance on gaming disorder, and resources from The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.