---
title: "Your Children Are Watching You Scroll: Here Is How to Build a Phone-Free Home Culture"
description: The UK government now tells parents to limit screens for under-fives. The harder conversation is about what parents do with their own phones, and what resear...
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-07-07T22:30:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-10T13:04:48.063Z
canonical: https://richmommagazine.com/article/phone-free-home-culture
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-two-teenagers-engrossed-in-their-smartphones-highlighting-di-9794727.jpg
categories: Fatherhood
region: United Kingdom
publication: Rich Dad Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
about:
  - type: Person
    name: Dame Rachel de Souza
    description: Children's Commissioner for England, co-chair of the expert panel that produced the UK government's 2026 screen time guidance for under-fives.
    jobTitle: Children's Commissioner for England
---

This spring the UK government issued its first official screen time guidance for under-fives. Children younger than two should avoid screens altogether, except for shared activities that encourage interaction. Children aged two to five should keep total screen time below one hour a day, with none in the hour before bed. The guidance, developed with Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza and paediatrician Professor Russell Viner, rested on a straightforward finding: long, solitary periods in front of a screen displace sleep, physical activity and the face-to-face interaction that young brains require.

The numbers behind it are difficult to look away from. Ninety-eight per cent of two-year-olds already watch screens every day. A quarter of parents of three-to-five-year-olds say they cannot control how much time their child spends on devices. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it a battle parents should not have to fight alone.

What the guidance does not address is the phone in the parent's hand.

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