Screen Time and Family Life

What you will be able to do

• explain what New Zealand's official guidance says about screen use for under-5s, school-age children and teenagers.
• audit your family's screen habits, including your own, and pick the changes that matter most.
• protect sleep, mealtimes and active play with simple screen-free times and zones.
• adapt rules to your child's age, from co-viewing with toddlers to agreeing limits with teenagers.
• write a family media agreement with your children that includes rules for adults too.
• plan screen-free activities and switch screens off with fewer battles.
• set up basic parental controls and know where to get help if something goes wrong online.
• track progress for four weeks and review what is working.

1. 1What New Zealand guidance actually says

   Clear up the confusion: what official New Zealand advice says about screens for under-5s, school-age children and teenagers, and why the focus is also on what screens replace.

   • The official advice, age by age
   • Not all screen time is equal

   Family screen time audit

2. 2Auditing your family's screen life

   Take an honest look at how screens are used in your home, including by the adults, and choose the changes that will make the biggest difference.

   • Running the family screen audit
   • Grown-ups' screens and setting the example

   Family screen time auditFamily media agreement

3. 3Screens, sleep, food and movement

   How screens affect the three foundations of children's health, and simple changes that protect each one.

   • Screens and sleep
   • Screens and eating
   • Screens and moving more

   Weekly family screen trackerScreen-free activities list

4. 4Age by age, from toddlers to teens

   What sensible screen use looks like for under-5s, primary-age children and teenagers, including first phones and social media.

   • Under-5s: less, slower and together
   • Primary school age and the first device
   • Teenagers, social media and independence

   Screen-free activities listFamily media agreement

5. 5Making your family media agreement

   Write a fair, simple screen agreement with your children, then make it stick, including across two homes and with grandparents.

   • Building the agreement together
   • Making it stick: consistency, consequences and two homes

   Family media agreementWeekly family screen tracker

6. 6Screen-free time and switching off without battles

   Fill the time screens used to take with things children enjoy, and use simple techniques to make switching off calmer.

   • Filling the gap: boredom, play and family time
   • Switching off without meltdowns

   Screen-free activities listWeekly family screen tracker

7. 7Online safety and wellbeing

   Set up practical safety settings, talk with children about life online, recognise warning signs and know exactly where to get help.

   • Settings, controls and sharing sensibly
   • Warning signs and keeping the conversation going

   Family screen time auditFamily media agreement

• CheckerFamily screen time auditA quick, honest check of how screens fit into your family's day, showing which areas to change first.
• TemplateFamily media agreementA short set of screen rules your family agrees together and signs, covering times, places, content, safety and what happens when rules are broken.
• ListScreen-free activities listA ready-made, editable bank of screen-free ideas by time, place and age, so 'I'm bored' has an answer.
• TrackerWeekly family screen trackerTracks four weeks of the habits that matter most (screen-free bedrooms, meals and wind-down, active play and leisure screen time) so you can see progress week by week.