UK rolls out screen guidance

England has published its first formal screen-time guidance for children under five and is routing that advice through Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority. (gov.uk) The guidance was published on March 26, 2026 by the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care. It says children under 2 should avoid screen time except shared activities such as video calls, and children aged 2 to 5 should be kept to about one hour a day if possible. (gov.uk) The advice also tells parents to keep screens away from mealtimes, bedrooms and the hour before bed. It says adults should watch with children when they do use screens, choose slow-paced age-appropriate content, and avoid social media-style videos, chatbots and other artificial intelligence tools for this age group. (beststartinlife.gov.uk) The hubs are part of a wider England rollout that the government said would reach every local authority by April 2026. A July 6, 2025 announcement said the programme was backed by more than £500 million and aimed to create up to 1,000 hubs by the end of 2028. (gov.uk) Formal implementation guidance for local authorities was updated on March 30, 2026. That document says Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies services are meant to run from April 2026 to March 2029 and set out delivery expectations for councils in England. (gov.uk) The government tied the new advice to growing screen use among very young children. Its March 2026 announcement said 24% of parents of 3- to 5-year-olds found it hard to control screen time, and a separate government research brief said 98% of 2-year-olds watched television, videos or other digital content on a typical day, for an average 127 minutes. (gov.uk 1) (gov.uk 2) Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza said on March 27 that parents had asked for “clear, non-judgemental information” and said she co-chaired the group advising ministers on the under-5 guidance. Her statement framed the document as the first government advice focused specifically on screen time for that age group. (childrenscommissioner.gov.uk) The guidance is narrower than the wider online-safety advice often given to parents of teenagers, which focuses on staying involved in a child’s digital life and watching for changes in mood, hygiene or social withdrawal. This new England policy is aimed at home routines for babies, toddlers and preschoolers: what they watch, when they watch, and whether an adult is there with them. (fox61.com) (beststartinlife.gov.uk) Some of the health concerns around screen habits overlap with older research on children and sedentary time. A peer-reviewed study in *Archives of Disease in Childhood* found higher screen time was associated with greater body fat and higher insulin resistance markers in children, while the new government advice stops short of making disease claims and instead focuses on development, sleep, attention and family interaction. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) (beststartinlife.gov.uk) For parents in England, the practical change is that the advice is now official, free and built into a local service network rather than scattered across apps, influencers and private parenting forums. The government said families will be able to get the guidance online and face to face through the hubs as the rollout continues. (gov.uk)