The guidance. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends avoiding screen media for children under 18 to 24 months, other than video chatting with family. The World Health Organization advises no screen time for infants under one, and no more than one hour a day for ages two to four. That is the baseline and we are not going to soften it.
What the research is actually measuring. This part matters, because it explains what the risk is and is not.
The strongest findings concern displacement. Screen time in infancy is associated with poorer language outcomes, and the leading explanation is that it displaces something else: responsive, back-and-forth interaction with a caregiver. Language develops through serve and return — your baby vocalises, you respond, they respond to your response. A screen cannot do that. Every minute in front of one is a minute not spent in that exchange.
The second concern is sleep. Evening screen exposure is associated with shorter and more disrupted sleep, partly through light exposure and partly through stimulation close to bedtime.
The third is overstimulation. Fast cuts, rapid movement, saturated colour and sudden sound are demanding for an immature nervous system. This is a real difference between content types: rapid-fire entertainment is a different object from a slow, static, high-contrast pattern.
What the research is not saying. There is no good evidence that a small amount of calm, supervised, slow visual content damages a baby. The concern is dose, content type, and what it replaces — not the mere presence of a lit rectangle.
Where that leaves a real parent. The honest position, and the one we apply to our own videos: a short, supervised, slow high-contrast video during a crying peak or a tummy time session is a reasonable trade-off in a hard moment. Hours a day as a default is not, and no framing makes it so.
If you use one:
- Stay in the room and stay engaged. Narrate, respond, be present. This converts a passive screen into a shared activity and addresses the main mechanism of harm.
- 10 to 15 minutes, not open-ended.
- At least 30cm away, volume around 50 dB.
- Not in the hour before bed.
- Never in the cot, never as a sleep prop, never unsupervised.
- Prefer printed cards when your hands are free — same effect, no screen. Our free printable pack exists precisely for this.
Video calls are different. Both AAP and WHO carve out video chatting, because it is genuinely interactive — the person on screen responds to your baby. Calls with grandparents are not the thing the guidance is warning about.
If you have concerns about your baby's development, language, or screen exposure, your pediatrician is the right person to ask.
Related, and more sceptical about our own product: are baby sensory videos safe?