UK toddlers now spending almost 7 hours a day on screens, new report shows
New research reveals UK toddlers are logging the most daily screen time – and it’s delaying key milestones.
British toddlers are spending on average almost seven hours a day in front of screens – more than any other age group and far above World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, according to a new report.
The report, by Compare and Recycle, an electronics recycling comparison site, is based on a survey of 1,000 UK parents with children under 17 in July 2025. It found that children under four were the heaviest screen users, with an average of six hours and 57 minutes of daily screen time.
Children aged 5-10 years were next, with an average of six hours and 22 minutes of daily screen time, followed by 17+ year-olds with five hours and 20 minutes, and then 11-16-year-olds who spend five hours and eight minutes on screens each day.
The survey also found that 34% of children struggle to eat meals without a screen in front of them, while 45% of parents use them to calm their kids.
The WHO’s recommended screen time is max 2 hours
Screen time is time spent watching TV, using tablets and smart phones, using a gaming console, or going on a laptop or PC.
The WHO doesn’t recommend any screen time for children under two, and that this time is limited to no more than one hour a day for children aged two to four. There aren’t any official guidelines for school-age children, but generally experts say that they shouldn’t spend more than two hours a day on screens.
This is because screen time is sedentary, and the WHO says that children who spend more time sat still are more likely to develop obesity and less likely to develop healthy habits. Watching a lot of TV has also been linked to difficulties with concentrating, and gaming doesn’t encourage good development of judgement or behaviour.
Olivia Hodges, a HCPC-registered paediatric occupational therapist, says: “Sedentary behaviour does not activate the muscles and joints needed for core strength, postural control, and joint stabilisation. Children need active play – such as spinning and swinging – to develop balance and motion tolerance, through things like climbing, jumping, pushing, and pulling.”
Higher screen time linked to developmental delays in toddlers
The report by Compare and Recycle found that the more screen time children have, the longer they take to hit key developmental milestones.
For example, children who had less than three hours of screen time a day were, on average, able to tie their shoelaces by the age of five years and seven months, whereas children who spent more than three hours on screens a day could tie their shoelaces by seven years and six months — a difference of nearly two years.
Children with under three hours’ screen time could also handwrite their name a year and a month before their peers who had more screen time, and count to ten nine months quicker, too.
Other developmental milestones that children in the survey hit later if they spent more than three hours a day on screen were:
- Using cutlery to eat a full meal
- Using the toilet independently
- Holding a pencil correctly
- Reading a full sentence aloud
- Throwing/catching a ball
- Climbing/descending stairs
However, growing up with screens can be useful for children to live in our digital world, and 77% of the parents surveyed said that they believe screens can help develop children’s skills.
“Technology is woven throughout our lives, and now, from a very young age, children have access to it. They can pick up digital skills incredibly quickly, but usage should be intentional,” Olivia says. “It should not replace traditional developmental milestones but rather complement or enhance them where possible.
“The duration, context, and content of the screen use are critical in determining its benefits.”
“Extended or excessive screen time, especially when passive, can negatively impact several core sensory systems in children,” she says.
“Typically, when on a tablet or smartphone, only one side of the body is engaged, limiting the opportunity for two-handed coordinated tasks. Glass screens offer limited tactile feedback and reduce a child’s exposure to varied textures, which are essential in developing touch discrimination.”
What parents can do instead of giving their child screens
Olivia recommends off-screen activities like messy play, bead threading, crawling, and climbing to counteract the negative physical and mental impacts of too much screen time, because they support hand strength development, core control, and sensory integration.
She also warns against screens when children are eating.
“Screens feel predictable, but the difficulty is that the child doesn’t learn how to self-regulate their emotional and sensory processing,” she says. “And at the dinner table, screens can distract children from the experience of eating itself, which over time, can affect how well a child learns to chew or move food around their mouth.”
Antonia Hristov, head of marketing at Compare and Recycle, says “It’s unrealistic to cut screens out entirely – but substituting screen time for more intentional activities as a family can make all the difference.”