Family media plan

What It Means

A family media plan is a household's own written agreement about screens: when and where they're used, what content is fine, and which times and places stay screen-free. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers a free Family Media Plan tool at HealthyChildren.org that walks a family through these choices and produces a personalized plan. Because it's built around each family's routines and valuesPersonal valuesThe principles and qualities a person holds most important, such as honesty, family or creativity, which guide their choices and how they judge events. See more, two households' plans can look quite different.

How It Sounds at Home

• "Check the media plan, it says no phones at dinner."
• "We redid our screen rules for summer."
• "The plan says screens off an hour before bed."

The Breakdown

Worked example. A family looks at a typical school day, when their 1010,000 stepsA popular daily step goal that began as the name of a 1960s Japanese pedometer; later studies find health benefits begin well below it. See more-year-old is home and awake for about 6 hours:

About 46% of the child's waking time at home is covered by the plan's screen-free zonesScreen-free timeSet times or places in a family's day, like meals, bedrooms or the hour before bed, when phones, TVs, tablets and games stay off. See more. The other 195 minutes aren't automatically screen timeParental controlsSettings and tools that let a parent limit what a child can see, download, buy and who they can contact on a device or app, and for how long. See more: they hold play, chores, outside time and whatever screen use the family agrees on.

What the numbers mean. A family media plan fixes the screen-free blocks in advance. Its other sections cover what fills the remaining time: which content is fine, which devices, and whether a parent watches along.

How to make one

1. Open the AAP's Family Media Plan at HealthyChildren.org and add each person in the household, adults included.
2. Choose screen-free times and places. Common ones are meals, bedrooms and the hour before bed.
3. Work through the other topics that matter to you, such as content, privacy and using media together.
4. Print or save the plan where everyone can see it, and revisit it when routines change, like at the start of summer.

Good to Know

AAP News lists the tool's topics as media balance, communicating about media, kindness and empathy, digital privacy and safety, screen-free zones and times, choosing good content, and using media together, with suggestions by age for everyone from infants to adults, in English and Spanish. In February 2026 the AAP replaced its 2016 media statements with a new policy, "Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents," which puts more weight on the quality of what children use, the setting and family conversations than on minutes alone. AAP News has also reported that Apple will adapt the Family Media Plan to guide parents. If screens are affecting your child's sleep, schoolwork or mood, talk with your pediatrician.

Related Terms and Categories

• Screen-free time

  Set times or places in a family's day, like meals, bedrooms or the hour before bed, when phones, TVs, tablets and games stay off.

• Screen time

  The time a child spends using screens such as TVs, tablets, phones, computers and game consoles, counted across a day or a week.

• Co-viewing

  Watching TV, videos or apps together with your child and talking about what you see, rather than handing over a screen to watch alone.

• Digital detox

  A set period when you stop using, or deliberately cut back on, smartphones, computers and other digital devices, usually to rest and lower stress.

• Family rules

  A short list of clear, specific statements about the behavior a family expects, agreed on by the adults and applied the same way every time.

Family organization and routines