By Sam Tabahriti
LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - Britain has told parents to curb young children's screen time, advising no screens for under-2s and up to an hour a day for 2- to 5-year-olds because prolonged solo use can disrupt sleep and displace play and exercise.
Governments worldwide have been moving to tighten rules around children's online use, with countries including France, Denmark and the Netherlands pushing for new age-verification and safety requirements citing concerns about mental-health risks, cyberbullying and exposure to harmful content.
Indonesia has also imposed tougher restrictions, with under-16s set to be barred from using Roblox from Saturday after the government designated the platform high-risk.
Britain's advice on the use of tablets, televisions, laptops and smartphones, published on Thursday, marks the government's most explicit intervention yet on early-years digital habits, after it said parents had been left to "battle" devices alone.
PARENTS REPORT STRUGGLES WITH CHILDREN'S SCREEN TIME
A quarter of parents in Britain of 3- to 5-year-olds have said they had struggled to control screen time, while 98% of 2-year-olds use screens daily, according to government figures.
The guidance tells parents to keep screens away from mealtimes and the hour before bed, opt for slow-paced and age-appropriate content, and watch alongside children to support early language and social development.
"My government will not leave parents to face this battle alone," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. He added that families needed "clear, common-sense" advice amid fast-moving technology and conflicting information online.
An expert panel, which recommended the guidance, suggested that social-media-style, fast-paced videos and some toys powered by artificial intelligence should be avoided for young children, while screen-based assistive technologies used by children with special educational needs should not be subject to blanket limits.
Britain and other European governments have also been weighing wider online-safety measures for older children, including potential minimum ages for social media, overnight curfews and restrictions on AI chatbots.
On Wednesday, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent for features that allegedly harmed a young user in a test case that could influence thousands of similar lawsuits.
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti;Editing by Alison Williams)
