Should kids earn screen time? What research says about an earn screen time chart

Many parents use screen time as currency: tidy your room, earn 30 minutes of tablet. It feels fair and it often works in the moment. But a study that looked closely at this practice found that preschoolers whose parents used screens to reward or punish behaviour ended up with more screen time overall.

A steadier approach keeps screens in a fixed window in the family plan, puts jobs first in the order of the day and uses rewards that do not involve screens. Here is what the research says and how to set it up.

Is it a good idea to earn screen time with chores?

It is common and understandable. Screens are what many children want most, so they look like the perfect motivator. The catch is what happens to screens in your child's mind when they become the top prize.

Lisa Tang, the researcher behind the screen time study, compared it with food: "When you give food as a reward, it makes children like the carrot less and the cake more" (University of Guelph). Screens used as a reward risk getting the same "cake" status.

There is also a practical problem: an earn screen time chart turns every job into a negotiation. "If I empty the dishwasher, how many minutes do I get?" Screen time grows with every job, and so do the arguments. Taking minutes away as a punishment adds another layer: screens become the lever for every conflict, from homework to sibling fights, and the tablet ends up at the centre of family life.

What did researchers find about screens as rewards?

Researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada studied 62 children aged 1.5 to 5 and their parents (39 mothers and 25 fathers) from the Guelph Family Health Study (Tang and colleagues, 2018). They looked at media parenting practices and children's screen time.

The university summarised it simply: children whose parents dole out screen time as a reward or take it away as punishment spend more time on screens.

The limits matter. The study was small, it looked at preschoolers only, and it measured an association at 1 point in time: it cannot prove that the reward practice caused the extra screen time. We found no study testing the same question in older children. Still, it is the clearest evidence we found on this exact practice, and it points in a consistent direction: the more screens are used as a lever, the bigger they seem to become.

What is the difference between "earning" and "when, then"?

Both put jobs before screens, but they work differently.

"When, then" uses the order of the day to motivate, without making screens bigger. The window stays the same size; it simply opens after the jobs. Our after school routine puts screens last for this reason.

What rewards work instead of screens?

Plenty, and many cost nothing:

• Time together: a board game with a parent, baking, a walk to the park.
• Privileges: choosing dinner, picking the family film, staying up 15 minutes later on Friday.
• Experiences: a trip to the library, a picnic, inviting a friend over.
• Small objects for bigger goals: saved for over several weeks.

Our rewards ideas page has dozens more by category, including family time, privileges at home and experiences and outings. If you use a structured system, our guide to the token economy at home explains how to build a reward menu, and how to motivate kids without bribes covers moving from rewards to inner motivation.

For example, a family with a 5 and an 8 year old might drop "minutes per job" and set 1 daily screen window after dinner jobs, the same length on every school day. Stars from jobs now go towards a Saturday choice: a bike ride, baking pancakes or picking the family film. Expect protests in the first week. Because the window no longer changes, there is far less to bargain over.

How do you build screens into a family media plan?

Make screen time a fixed part of the family plan, decided in advance. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests creating media rules that work for your family, setting screen-free zones such as the dinner table, homework time and before bed, leaving room for reading, outdoor play and family games, and discussing the plan with your children (HealthyChildren.org). It also suggests revisiting the plan often, for example at the start of each school year.

A simple plan answers 4 questions:

1. When? The daily window (after homework, before dinner).
2. How long? The same length every school day, a different one at weekends if you like.
3. Where? Shared rooms, with bedrooms screen-free at night.
4. What happens at the end? A timer, a warning 5 minutes before, and the turn off the screen when time is up quest.

In Germany, many families write this down as a Mediennutzungsvertrag, a media agreement parents and children fill in and sign together (Mediennutzungsvertrag). Our screen time rules for kids guide has more on limits by age, and screen time by age compares what health bodies recommend.

What about older kids and teens?

Older children need more say and more self-management. Screens are also part of school work and social life, so "earning" makes even less sense.

• Agree on the plan together. Teens accept rules they helped write.
• Focus on boundaries. Phones out of the bedroom at night, no screens at meals, homework first. Our screen and device manners guide covers the habits that go with them.
• Let them manage their own time within the agreed window, and review it if it does not work.
• Model it. In the Guelph study, mothers' own screen use was also linked with more screen time for their children.

Kidventures keeps screens out of the reward loop if you want it to: kids earn stars for quests and spend them on rewards you choose together, which can be time, privileges or outings. Browse the chore library to set the jobs that come before the screen window.