Screens and Kids: The Age-by-Age Guide (0-11)

July 15, 2026 6 min Translation missing: en.lockin.article.reading_time_suffix L'équipe Lock-IN

Boîtier Lock-IN utilisé en famille pour encadrer le temps d'écran des enfants

"How much screen time for a 6-year-old?" If you've ever typed that question, you've probably found everything and its opposite. Here are the recommendations that set the standard in France, age by age — with their sources — and, above all, how to apply them without turning every evening into a negotiation.

This article covers ages 0-11. For middle and high schoolers, head straight to teen screen time: how much is too much.

What France has recommended since 2024

In April 2024, a panel of experts commissioned by the French presidency delivered a nearly 140-page report titled "Children and Screens — In Search of Lost Time," the result of three months of expert hearings and consultations with 150 young people. Its recommendations have become the French reference point:

Age	Recommendation
Before 3	No screens
Before 11	No mobile phone
11-13	Phone allowed, but no internet access
13-15	Connected phone, but no social media
15 and up	Only "ethically designed" social media

Source: "Children and Screens — In Search of Lost Time" report, April 2024.

A word of honesty: these are recommendations, not law, and they describe an ideal that almost no family hits perfectly. The goal isn't a perfect score. It's having a direction.

The 3-6-9-12 rule, still the easiest to remember

Long before this report, psychiatrist Serge Tisseron proposed a benchmark that became a classic in France, because it fits on a single line:

No screens before 3
No personal game console before 6
No internet before 9
No internet alone before 12

The two frameworks agree on the essentials, and above all on the most important principle: it isn't the screen itself that's the problem, it's the unsupervised screen, too early.

Age by age, in practice

0-3: zero screens, and it's non-negotiable

This is the one point where the scientific consensus is truly unanimous, and it's echoed by French health authorities. Before age 3, the brain is built through human interaction, movement, and handling real objects — three things a screen doesn't provide, even with the best "educational" content in the world.

The most common trap at this age isn't the child's tablet: it's the parent's phone. An adult answering emails during dinner sends a far stronger signal than any rule spoken out loud.

3-6: supervised, short, never alone

If there is a screen, then: always with an adult beside them, in short stretches (20-30 minutes), never in the morning before school or in the evening before bed, and never as a way to calm a tantrum. That last point matters enormously: a screen handed over to stop a meltdown teaches the child that screens regulate emotions. It's exactly the reflex you find in adults who scroll when they're stressed.

6-9: set the rules while it's still easy

The ideal age to set up simple, non-negotiable rules — because at 12, they get negotiated. Three that work well: no screens in the bedroom, no screens during meals, no screens in the hour before bed. And one habit to build: every so often, watch with them what they're watching. Parental controls will never replace a conversation.

9-11: internet, but supervised

This is the age when searches, YouTube, and online games arrive — along with social pressure ("everyone has one," which is almost always false). Internet, yes, but in a shared room, with active parental controls and one clear rule: you can come to us about anything, and you'll never be punished for showing us something that made you uncomfortable. It's the rule that protects the most, and it costs nothing.

The first phone: why age 11, and how to handle it

The panel recommends not giving a phone before age 11, and between 11 and 13, a phone with no internet access. In reality, most families give the first phone at the start of middle school, for a very practical reason: traveling alone. It's a legitimate need — but a need to call, not a need for TikTok.

Hence the principle: separate the phone function from the entertainment function. Three options, from the simplest to the most flexible:

A basic phone (calls/texts only). The most radical, the most effective — and often socially tough to live with.
A smartphone with software parental controls. Convenient, but worth knowing: workaround tutorials circulate as early as the last year of primary school, and it can set off a cat-and-mouse game.
A smartphone with physical blocking. This is the approach behind the Lock-IN box: the child keeps their phone — calls, texts, and GPS still work, so they stay reachable and traceable — but distracting apps lock with a single tap and only reopen when they come back to the box. The block is visible and understood by everyone, which avoids any feeling of hidden surveillance.

Whatever you choose, one thing matters more than the tool: the child has to take part in the rule. An imposed rule is a rule to get around; a co-written rule is a rule to keep. We break this approach down in parental controls: blocking your teen's apps without the war and on our parents page.

What matters more than the number of hours

Parents fixate on the clock. Researchers, much less so — and for good reasons.

Format matters more than duration. A CHU Sainte-Justine study that followed around 4,000 young people over five years found an association between worsening ADHD symptoms and social media, television, or video games — but no association with plain computer use. An hour of infinite scrolling and an hour of video editing are not the same hour. (More details: ADHD and screens.)

Timing matters more than duration. An hour of screen time at 9 p.m. costs sleep — and therefore attention and mood the next day. The same hour on a Wednesday afternoon costs almost nothing. See sleeping without a phone.

What the screen replaces matters more than anything else. The real question isn't "how many hours of screen time" but "are they sleeping enough, moving enough, seeing their friends, getting bored sometimes." If the answer is yes, two hours is no disaster. If it's no, even thirty minutes can already be a problem.

Frequently asked questions

How much screen time per day for a 6-year-old?

There's no single official threshold in France for this age. The practical consensus is: short stretches, chosen content, always supervised, never in the bedroom, never before bed, never during meals. The quality of the framework matters more than the exact number.

At what age should you give a child their first phone?

The French expert panel recommends not before age 11, and no internet access between 11 and 13. In practice, the start of middle school is the most common moment — the key then is to separate the "reach them" function from the "entertain them" function.

Do screens make children hyperactive?

No, screens don't cause ADHD, which is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a strong genetic component. That said, several longitudinal studies show that heavy use of fast-reward content is associated with worsening symptoms of inattention and impulsivity.

Are parental controls enough?

They help, but they replace neither conversation nor example. They can be worked around, and they tell the child nothing about the why behind the rule. A framework that's understood lasts far longer than one that's merely endured.

The one-sentence summary

No screens before 3, supervised until 9, no phone before 11 — and above all, rules the whole family follows, adults included. That's the hardest part, and by far the most effective.

When the first phone arrives, the Lock-IN box (39 €, no subscription, 14-day money-back guarantee) keeps the child reachable while blocking distracting apps — with no hidden surveillance and no power struggle.