Screen time, such as TV viewing and computer use, has been associated with overweight and obesity in children and adolescents [1, 2]. High prevalence of screen time and its detrimental health effects for children is a major public health problem [3]. In Australia, 71 % of children aged 5–17 years exceed recommended limits of screen time (≤2 h/day of television, seated electronic games and computer use) [4]. Limiting TV viewing and computer use in children is important as screen time tends to increase during adolescence [5] and remains highly prevalent in adulthood, exacerbating the problem of sedentariness, physical inactivity and obesity [6].

Adults including parents, grand-parents and other caregivers can influence children’s screen time by restricting TV viewing and computer use [7]. Usually, adults recognise the importance of limiting screen time but fail to impose screen time restrictions for children [8]. Moreover, adults often model excessive TV viewing and computer use themselves [8], which may impede their willingness and effectiveness to enforce screen time restrictions for children. Despite increasing research on adults’ role in limiting children’s screen time, little is known about how much screen time adults think is appropriate for children, and whether this corresponds to established screen time recommendations for children [9]. Further, it is unclear to what extent adults’ own screen time behaviour would determine their views on screen time restrictions for children. Finally, most previous research in this area has concentrated solely on parents [10]; however, many other adults who supervise children, such as grand-parents, aunts and uncles, friends and child care workers, also play an important role in limiting children’s screen time [11]. Hence, it is worth exploring this topic beyond the traditional parent–child relationship.

This study aimed to investigate how adults’ screen time behaviour influences their views on screen time restrictions for children, including differences by gender and parental status. This information may improve the development of potentially more effective family-based interventions to reduce screen time in children.

This study investigated adult views on screen time restrictions for children, and the association with adults’ own screen time behaviour. Associations were explored in the entire adult sample, and specific adult groups (men, women, parents, non-parents). Findings showed that most adults think it is appropriate to restrict children’s screen time to ≤ 2 h/day but few adults themselves adhered to ≤ 2 h/day of leisure-related screen time. Similar studies [8, 15] have shown that although parents are generally well informed about the negative impacts of high screen use and the need to restrict screen time in children, many are high screen users themselves. An Australian study [16] found that parents who did not incorporate their knowledge and awareness about healthy behaviour into their daily lives attributed their failure to challenges and barriers, such as lack of time and pressure from their children as a result of TV advertising and child peer pressure. Several studies [17–19] have shown that adult rules on screen use can effectively deter children from participating in excessive TV viewing and computer use. However, it is not just the presence of screen time rules and restrictions that is important but also the support through adult modelling of low screen use [18].

Adults who spend ≤ 2 h/day in leisure-related screen time were less likely to allow children > 2 h/day of TV viewing and/or computer use; the association did not differ between men and women, and parents and non-parents. This finding is consistent with the results from similar studies [7, 20] showing that parents who model low screen time are more likely to impose stricter screen time rules on their children. In contrast, if parents are high screen users themselves, their efforts to impose screen time restrictions for children are more likely to fail, especially when children and parents are watching TV together [10].

To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate adult views on screen time restrictions for children and their association with adults’ own screen time behaviour. Another novel aspect in this study was the focus on the perceptions of adults beyond solely parents. Other methodological strengths of this study include the use of a large random population sample gathered across all of Australia, the use of a validated measure of adult screen time behaviour, and the distinction between weekday and weekend day screen time. This study also had limitations. Most participants were older, and although 81 % of adults were parents, fewer adults were parents of young children. Therefore, findings may not be generalisable to parents of younger children. Also, the parental status measure (parents versus non-parents) may have been sub-optimal as sometimes non-parents also undertake child caring roles, and therefore play a similar role to parents. If many non-parents in this sample were child carers, it may have influenced the results. Moreover, the screen time measures used in our study captured solely TV viewing and computer use for fun. Smartphone and tablet use was not specifically assessed; however, their use has also become an integral part of families’ life [21]. Hence, adult screen time behaviour and the proposed screen time for children may have been underestimated. Finally, we assessed adult views on screen time restrictions for children. From this we cannot infer what screen time restrictions adults actually apply in children. However, adults’ views on screen time restrictions for children presented in this study may reveal common social norms on how much screen time is appropriate for children, and these may influence children’s actual screen time. Given that adults play a major role in limiting children’s screen time, their screen time-related attitudes, knowledge and behaviour it is worth exploring further in future research. For example, future studies may explore reasons why adults think it is important to limit children’s screen time to ≤ 2 h/day although they themselves exceed to this limit. Such information may help target particular parent populations and design more effective family-based interventions to reduce screen-based activities in children. Interventions in this area may incorporate strategies to reduce screen time behaviour in both children and parents.

Most adults think it is appropriate to limit children’s screen time to the recommended ≤ 2 h/day, but few adults themselves adhere to this screen time limit. Adults who engage ≤ 2 h/day in leisure-related screen time would allow children significantly less time for TV viewing and computer use. Effective interventions to reduce screen time in children may require not only the implementation of screen time rules and restrictions, but also adult modelling of less screen use.