Screen time guidance has shifted over the past decade as research has accumulated, and current general guidance is more nuanced than a single hard number.
For children under roughly 18 months, most current guidance suggests avoiding screen media beyond occasional video calling with family, given limited evidence of benefit at this developmental stage.
For toddlers and preschoolers, current guidance generally shifts toward emphasizing content quality and co-viewing with a caregiver over a strict total time limit alone — high-quality, age-appropriate content watched together is generally viewed differently than passive solo viewing of arbitrary content.
For school-age children, the emphasis increasingly shifts toward what screen time displaces — sleep, physical activity, in-person social interaction — rather than treating all screen time as equally concerning regardless of context.
Guidance continues to evolve, and checking current recommendations from your pediatric health authority periodically is more useful than relying on a single fixed number indefinitely.