Yes, we sell more screen time

Someone once told me I do not protect childhood. That I would "sell more screen time."

They meant it as an accusation. I will take it as a description. Yes. I want children to spend more time on something good, because most of what fills their screens right now is bad for them.

So no, I will not promise you less screen time. I will promise you better. And if better means more time on something actually worth their attention, I can live with that.

The moment I keep thinking about

At a fundraising event, I asked a mother how screen time worked in her home. Her eyes filled with tears. She had to prepare for the event. She needed one more hour. So she put her child in front of a screen.

She called it dumping. "I just dumped my child in front of a screen."

That word. The guilt in it. That is not a woman who does not care about her child. That is a woman who cares enormously, who had a hard day, who made the only call she could, and who has been quietly punishing herself for it ever since.

I recognise it. I have felt it too.

How much screen time are children actually getting?

The 2025 Common Sense Census found that children aged five to eight average around three and a half hours a day on screens. That is not a fringe behaviour. That is most children, in most homes, everywhere.

You can dream about a screen-free childhood. You can also look at the real one. Those two things are not the same childhood.

The screen-free version is a lovely idea. For most families, it is not an option. Many parents do not have nannies, grandparents next door, or safe streets where children roam freely until dark. By the time a child is ten, being entirely off screens can mean being the odd one out, left out of conversations, games, references that everyone else shares.

Screens are part of childhood now. The question is not whether. It is what.

I sat in front of a screen too

I grew up in front of a television. Three channels, nothing interactive, nothing on demand. Entirely passive. I sat there because my mother had dishes, food, laundry, a sick parent, and a job. Sometimes she just had to get on with it.

She was not dumping me. She was keeping us both afloat.

I turned out fine. More than fine. And I do not remember the television as a failure of my childhood. I remember my mother working, keeping things together, being a person as well as a parent.

Children are not permanently damaged by an imperfect hour. They are formed by a thousand small things, and one of the least of those is a parent who needed sixty minutes to get something done.

The problem is not the screen. It is the dump on it.

When I say that, I mean something specific. The problem is not a child watching something for an hour while a parent gets on with life. That is fine. That has always been fine. Parents have always needed breaks, and children have always entertained themselves.

The problem is what is on the screen. The content that rewards nothing, teaches nothing, goes nowhere. The scroll designed to hold attention without giving anything back. That is the dump. Not the time itself.

An investor once said to me, gently: "I am not sure we need more screen time. But I am not a mum yet." She was thoughtful, and I understood the worry. But the threat was never the extra hour on something good. The threat is the hours we already hand over to things that give nothing back.

Right now, for most children, it is not.

Putting your child in front of a screen does not make you a bad parent

Keeping them off it does not automatically make you a good one. Parenting is hard enough without adding shame to the perfectly normal act of needing a moment to yourself.

The guilt the mother carried at that fundraiser was real. But it was misplaced. She had not failed her child. She had managed a hard day. Those are not the same thing.

What we should be asking is not how many hours. It is: what was the child doing? Was it passive or active? Did it open anything up, or just fill time? Did they come away knowing something they did not know before, curious about something new, with a story to tell?

Those are the questions that matter. Minutes do not.

What we built, and why

Unomundi is a cultural-discovery app where children aged 6 to 12 explore countries and cultures through stories, games, and conversations with Una, a warm AI guide.

We built it because the hours are already there, and most of them are wasted. We want them to count. If that means more time on something good, so be it. Better beats less.

When a child spends an hour with Una, they come away having discovered something real about a place they had never thought about. A story they want to retell at dinner. A tradition that makes them ask why. It does not feel like learning. It feels like being let in on something wonderful.

That is what an hour in front of a screen can be. It does not have to be a dump.

The guilt you carry is not about screens. It is about wanting more for your child than passive, empty time. That want is a good instinct. Trust it. Then point it in the right direction.

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FAQs

Is it bad to let my child watch screens while I get things done?

No. Children needing passive screen time while a parent manages the day is normal and has always been normal. The concern is not the hours but what the screen is actually offering during that time.

How much screen time do children aged 5 to 8 get on average?

According to the 2025 Common Sense Census, children aged five to eight average around three and a half hours a day on screens.

What is Unomundi?

Unomundi is a cultural-discovery app where children aged 6 to 12 explore countries and cultures through stories, games, and conversations with Una, a warm AI guide.