Screen time report
Practical parenting in the age of screens
This report provides insight on parents’ concerns and understanding of the issue of children’s screen time use. It highlights what both children and parents feel are the challenges and benefits as they get older and become more proficient online.
It also offers practical advice and resources to help parents make informed decisions to make screen time work for their family.
What’s on this page
Key report findings
This report shows what families in the UK shared about their children’s online screentime and it’s impact on their children. We asked parents and young people to tell us what was good about their children’s screen use and what was challenging. Here are the key insights.
Screen time management
It is no surprise that managing the amount of time children spend using devices is a battle for parents.
Fear of Missing Out
Parents admit to setting a bad example themselves as they are constantly looking at their own devices.
Rules around screen time
Overall, almost 9 in 10 (88%) parents take measures to limit their child’s use of devices.
New opportunities bring new challenges
Children gain a lot from being online but it can become a distraction.
Children push boundaries
Children may use devices more than they are allowed to without parent knowledge.
Parents feel left behind
Children want to protect their own digital world from parents and gain more independence to explore.
Look Both Ways full report PDF
Take a look at what is inside the report and explore more findings on screen time use for children and young people
We provide background to the screen time debate that has come to focus solely on time spent rather than how children spend their time online and what impact this has on their development. We highlight the need for parents to ‘look both ways’ to help children explore the benefits but also mitigate the risks and manage their own behaviour to model healthy screen use for their children.
An outline of our research methodology to show how participants were screened to ensure they met our required criteria.
A summary of parents’ and children’s understanding of the benefits and challenges that screen time can bring and the nuanced nature of how this changes for children as they grow.
A summary of what parents told us they feel are the many benefits that screen time offers their children such as facilitating homework, providing downtime and driving creativity.
A summary of advice, resources, and tools available to help parents mitigate the risks screen time can bring but also take advantage of the opportunities that it can offer. For more advice, visit our screen time hub of advice.
Supporting resources
Screen time advice hub
Create balance digital diet
Digital Wellbeing Research
My Family's Digital Toolkit
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