Kids TV shows can teach valuable life lessons

What the research found

A 2013 randomised trial of 565 parents of 3 to 5 year olds helped families swap aggressive programs for prosocial and educational ones, without cutting total screen time. At 6 months, children's social competence and behaviour scores were better than in the control group. A 2008 review also found children can learn about emotions from characters on screen and feel empathy for them.

Learning isn't automatic. A 2010 trial of 96 children aged 12 to 24 months found no evidence they learned words from a baby DVD without a parent helping. A 2011 trial of sixty 4-year-olds found 9 minutes of a fast-paced cartoon temporarily worsened self-control and memory tasks, compared with an educational cartoon or drawing.

A 2026 New Zealand study followed children from age 2 to 8 and looked at aggressive and prosocial TV content. A 2016 policy statement says research on young children's media is still limited. It stresses that parents watching with children matters, not just content or time limits.

What it doesn’t mean

• The best evidence is for preschoolers, and the trial that showed benefits did so by changing which shows families chose, not by testing single episodes. Little of the evidence covers school-age children.
• Australian guidelines recommend no screen time under 2 years and no more than 1 hour a day for ages 2 to 5. For ages 5 to 17 they recommend no more than 2 hours a day of recreational screen time. Good content doesn't replace active play, sleep and time with family.
• If you're worried about your child's behaviour, attention or language, talk to your GP or child health nurse.