Screen Time Calculator

Enter an age and this tool picks the matching band from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) media use recommendations, then compares whatever you log against that daily limit.

• Under 18 months: the AAP advises avoiding screen media other than video chatting. The limit shown is zero, and video chat with family is not counted against it.
• 18–24 months: there is no official number. If you choose to introduce media, the AAP says pick high-quality programming and watch it together, so the tool suggests a small starter budget rather than quoting a rule that does not exist.
• 2–5 years: one hour per day of high-quality programming; this is the AAP's stated limit.
• 6 years and older: the AAP deliberately stops giving a number here and instead asks for consistent limits that leave room for sleep, physical activity, homework, and time offline. The two hours of recreational screen time shown is a widely used practical target, not an official AAP figure — it is labelled as a suggestion, and you can replace it with your own limit.

Every day you log is totalled and drawn against that limit. Bars that stay under the dashed line are within budget; bars that cross it are over. The vs previous week figure compares the daily average of the week you are viewing against the seven days before it, so you can see the direction of travel rather than a single day's spike.

• Categories: logging what kind of screen time it was matters more than the raw total; an hour of a maths app and an hour of autoplay video are not the same hour. The breakdown shows where the week actually went.
• Video chat: excluded from totals by default, since the AAP treats talking to a grandparent as a social interaction rather than screen media. Tick the box to count it if you would rather track everything.
• Your own limit: the optional limit field overrides the guideline for every calculation and for the dashed line on the chart. Useful for older children, where you set the rule.
• Storage: the age, your limit, and every logged entry are saved in your browser with localStorage, so they persist on this device between visits. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.

These are general guidelines, not medical advice. What your child watches, whether you watch it with them, and what the screen time displaces all matter more than the minute count. Raise ongoing concerns with your pediatrician.

You can embed this util on your own site as a widget. Adding ?embed=1 to the URL loads a compact version with just the tool itself; no header, menu, or documentation. Paste this snippet into your HTML:

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