Overview
- The advisory, released Wednesday, May 20, 2026, warns that excessive or compulsive screen use is linked to poor sleep, worse school performance, anxiety, depression and other developmental harms.
- It sets outside-of-school age guidelines that recommend no screens for children under 18 months, under one hour a day for ages 18 months to 6, and up to two hours a day for children 6 to 18.
- The report includes a '5 Ds' toolkit—Discuss, Do, Delay, Divert, Disconnect—for families and health providers and urges schools to adopt bell-to-bell cellphone bans, favor pen-and-paper assignments and keep devices in labs.
- HHS officials produced the advisory while the surgeon general post is vacant and President Trump’s nominee, Dr. Nicole Saphier, awaits Senate confirmation, and the department called for more research and cross-sector action.
- Experts say the evidence is nuanced because different screen activities have different effects, so the advisory stresses precaution, new longitudinal studies and potential rules to push tech companies to curb design features that encourage addictive use.