What is screen time?

Screen time is any amount of time spent in front of a screen on any device. Digital devices provide many great opportunities for the whole family, including activities for learning and creativity, as well as entertainment and enjoyment. During the Covid-19 pandemic, these benefits became even more important and screen time increased. However, we hear from parents and carers that managing screen time can be a source of conflict with their children. 

Click below to find tailored advice and top tips for supporting children of different ages with their screen time from Childnet International:

Grooming or other illegal behaviour

If you want to report someone who is behaving suspiciously online towards a child, you should contact 999 if it is an emergency situation, or otherwise make a report to CEOP, the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre. 

Criminal content online

If you see any criminal content online, you should report this to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). Criminal content in the UK includes child sexual abuse images, criminally obscene adult content, as well as non-photographic child sexual abuse images.

Young people under 18 can report nude images or videos of themselves which have been shared online to Childline. 

Online content which incites hatred on the grounds of race, religion, disability and sexual orientation or transgender identity, should be reported to True Vision, which tackles all forms of hate crime. True Vision will give you information on content which indicates hatred and how to report it.  

Media content inappropriate for children

If you want to make a complaint about an advert, television or radio programme, film, newspaper, magazine, video game or other type of content online of offline, that you think is unsuitable for children, then OFCOM provide information on how to do this.

Getting help/advice

Many popular online services have some really useful help and advice areas, as well as ways to report and block content that is not allowed on the site (eg cyberbullying). You can also set up parental controls and restrict in-app purchases.