No setting makes a two-year-old safe online. What matters is what you do before you hand over the device, who else in the house uses it, and whether your child knows what to do when something looks wrong. This guide covers the controls worth turning on for a 2 to 5 year old, the apps that suit this age, how to handle a tablet shared with an older sibling, and how much screen time is actually recommended.
The short version
- Set up the device before the first handover, not after the first worry.
- Never hand over your own unlocked phone or tablet, even for a minute.
- Turn off autoplay, in-app purchases and contact from strangers on day one.
- Give your child their own account and profile, not a shared login.
- Keep the tablet in a room where an adult can see the screen.
- One hour a day for ages 2 to 5, and less is better.
What actually goes wrong for under-fives
Young children do not yet have the judgement to handle online spaces safely, and the risks they meet are quite specific. They are also mostly preventable with a handful of settings. These are the ones the NSPCC identifies, and what to do about each.
| What can go wrong | How to reduce it |
|---|---|
| Autoplay traps. Video apps play the next clip on their own, so one search turns into an hour of whatever the algorithm decides to show. | Turn autoplay off on every video app, including YouTube Kids. Then choose what is next yourself. |
| Unsuitable content in apps that look child-safe. Advert breaks and user-uploaded videos can slip through even in apps designed for families. | Set the age band to match your child, review what is there regularly, and use approved-content-only settings wherever they exist. |
| Accidental purchases. Pop-ups and one-tap buying let a toddler spend real money in seconds. | Switch off in-app purchases, PIN the app store, and take your card off the account. |
| Cameras and microphones used without understanding. A young child will happily film themselves and share it with the room. | Restrict camera and microphone permissions, and keep the tablet out of bedrooms and bathrooms. |
| Photos of your child being shared and misused. Images posted now can still be copied and misused years later. | Delay posting, crop out school uniform and names, and keep location sharing switched off. |
| Overuse. Long stretches of passive screen time eat into sleep, play and development. | Cap it at an hour a day, use the app timer, and keep screens out of meals and bedrooms. |
Setting up the device before you hand it over
Every device in the house has its own control panel, and most families never open it. The work takes twenty minutes once. Do it before the first handover, not the first incident.
| Device | Built-in control | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| iPad, iPhone, Mac | Screen Time, in Family Sharing | Screen Time limit and bedtime schedule, Ask to Buy, Content and Privacy Restrictions, App Store purchases |
| Android tablet or phone | Google Family Link | Daily limit, app installs, Play purchase approvals, content filters, location |
| Home broadband | Provider parental controls | Filtering for everything on the WiFi, including the smart TV and any console |
| Smart TV | The TV's own parental control menu | Rating lock and the PIN, so the settings cannot be changed from the sofa |
| Game console | Family settings on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo | Games by age rating, online chat off, spending limits |
| YouTube | YouTube Kids | Child profile, Preschool age band, approved content only, autoplay off, timer |
| Video calls | Family Sharing and Family Link | Contact from strangers off, so calls only reach people you have started |
The settings that matter for this age
- Switch off in-app purchases and put a PIN on the app store. A PIN on the store itself also stops anything new being installed without you, which is the setting that quietly does the most work.
- Turn off autoplay everywhere. One accidental tap is all it takes to go from your child's video to a channel you did not choose.
- Turn off contact from strangers, so a child can only call or chat with someone you have contacted first, such as Grandad.
- Turn off location sharing. A live location trail tells anyone with access to the account exactly where your child is.
- Restrict camera and microphone permissions, and set the content filter to your child's age band rather than leaving it on the default.
- Set a screen time limit and a bedtime schedule. Children respond better to a timer that ends on its own than to a screen being taken away mid-game.
Do not hand over your own unlocked device
Even briefly. An adult phone in a small hand is how most under-fives meet content they were never meant to see, because it is not filtered and it is already signed in to your accounts. If you need to show them something, open it, sit down with them, and keep it in your hands.
Give them a child account, not your login
Create a child profile or child account for every app that offers one, and keep your own account separate. On Apple devices that is Family Sharing, on Android it is Family Link, and the BBC's own apps let you create a child profile with a date of birth so the content is matched to the right age band. It takes a couple of minutes, and it means the videos your child sees are chosen for their age rather than yours.
Deciding what they can open
Age ratings are the fastest way to sort apps, but they are only a starting point. In the UK, games carry a PEGI rating of 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 16 or 18, and the number is the minimum age for the content, not a judgement on whether your child is ready for it. The rating also says nothing about the adverts inside the app or what happens when the app asks for a microphone.
There is another problem worth knowing about. The rating in an app store is set by the store, while the age requirement in the app's own terms is set by the developer, and the two do not always match. Internet Matters found a yoga app listed as suitable from age three while its own terms required users to be 18 or over.
| Usually fine for this age | Wait until they are older |
|---|---|
| CBeebies and BBC children's apps. The BBC confirms these are free to download, have no in-app purchases, and include a parental lock to stop little fingers reaching the app store. | Anything with a feed, a chat or a shop. These are the three features that turn a game into a social platform. |
| YouTube Kids set to the Preschool band with approved content only and autoplay off. | YouTube itself, and every social app. TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube are all rated 13 or above. |
| Games rated 3. Toca Boca and Pok Pok are designed for this age, and Khan Academy Kids is free with no adverts or in-app purchases. | Games rated 7 and up. Minecraft is 7, Pokémon GO is 8, Fortnite is 12, and Roblox is 13. |
| Video calls with family, using an account you control and contact-from-strangers turned off. | Anything where a stranger can reach them, including free voice chat inside games. |
The NSPCC's recommendation for this age is supervised access only, with family devices and child versions of popular video sites, and content checked before each use. That sounds strict until you have watched a three-year-old tap through fifteen adverts in ninety seconds.
One more thing to be careful about: apps that market themselves as educational. Nobody has to prove that an app teaches anything, and a quiet, slow-learning app can still take up an hour of your child's day. Check what it actually does before you assume it is doing more than colouring in.
How much screen time is enough
Government guidance and the World Health Organisation agree on the same limits, and they are also the limits most preschools work to.
| Age | Recommended screen time |
|---|---|
| Under 1 | None, apart from video calls with family who live far away |
| 1 to 2 | No sedentary screen time, which means no watching or playing while sitting down |
| 2 to 3 | No more than one hour a day, and less is better |
| 3 to 5 | No more than one hour a day, and less is better |
The limit covers everything: tablets, phones, computers and televisions, and it counts towards the same hour whatever the child is doing on it. What sits inside that hour matters more than the hour itself. A video you sing along to together, a drawing app you use side by side, or a game that ends on its own with a timer all work better than an endless feed you are not part of.
Two habits pay for themselves straight away. Keep screens out of bedrooms, because even a device on a bedside table affects sleep. And keep them out of meals, because the adults at the table are the strongest example your child has of how to behave around a screen. Children copy what they see you do, not what you tell them to do.
Siblings: the biggest variable in the house
If your preschooler has an older brother or sister, the home is not a controlled environment. It has a second set of accounts, a second set of rules and a second opinion about what is allowed. That is where most of the work is, and it is the part that no app setting can fix.
The shared tablet
A tablet that belongs to an older sibling means your preschooler can reach their games, their account and the names of their online friends. NHS advice for under-fives is to allow access rather than ownership, so the tablet belongs to the family and stays in a shared room.
If it is genuinely shared, give the younger child their own profile on it and check which profile is signed in each time it changes hands. Children forget to switch, and the default profile is usually the oldest account on the device, which is the one with the most access.
Older siblings decide what gets installed
The older child is usually the one who adds a game to the shared tablet, and they do it because a friend is playing it. Ask your older child what they have installed, look at the app list yourself, and be clear about the rule: the apps on that tablet are the ones you have approved.
The content problem is usually a sibling, not a stranger
A nine-year-old showing a four-year-old a video is the most common route to unsuitable content for a young child. It is not sinister, it is just a brother or sister who thinks something is funny. The defences are unglamorous: set the video profile to approved content only so a search cannot wander, check the watch history every so often, and make it easy for your child to tell you when something odd appears.
Give the older sibling a way to tell you
If something unsuitable turns up on the older child's device, they need to be able to say so without it becoming a row about their own screen time. Tell them that bringing you a problem is the right thing to do and will not cost them anything. Younger children will then copy that behaviour, which is the point.
Rules that fit both ages
Use the same values and different amounts of independence. A twelve-year-old can watch more than a three-year-old, but both of them do not buy things without asking, both of them keep screens out of their bedrooms, and both of them tell an adult when something feels wrong. Writing that down once covers the whole household, which is easier than running two separate rulebooks.
Tell the other adults too
Grandparents, childminders and anyone else who looks after your child need the same limits, and they need to know what they are. A grandmother who hands over her phone for an hour because she does not know your rules undoes an afternoon of careful setup. Say what is allowed, how long, and which apps are off limits.
AI, smart speakers and toys that talk back
Current government guidance advises avoiding AI toys, chatbots, smart speakers and interactive robots for under-fives. The reason is straightforward: there is not yet enough evidence on how these affect young children's development. Holding that line is much easier before a child has formed an attachment to something that answers back.
The rules announced in June 2026 go in the same direction. Chatbots will face tighter limits on the content they can offer under-18s, and platforms will have to use stronger age checks to enforce them. Those protections are aimed at teenagers, and they will do little for a four-year-old asking a chatbot what its name is.
If you do have a voice assistant or a talking toy at home, the practical advice for this age is to keep it in a shared room and treat it as a toy rather than a confidant. Children talk to these devices the way they talk to a friend, and a five-year-old will tell a speaker things they would not tell you.
Photos, cameras and sharenting
Posting pictures of your child is one of the nicest things families do online, and it is also the thing most likely to cause a problem years later. A photo posted today can be copied, saved and misused long after your child has moved on. The NSPCC lists sharenting and image misuse as one of the six main risks for under-fives.
None of that means posting nothing. It means being a little careful. Leave out school uniform, name badges, house numbers and street views. Delay posting until your child is older, or crop the identifying details out. Keep location sharing switched off, and check the location permission on each app separately rather than only in your system settings.
The camera is the other half of this. A three-year-old on a video call will wander into frame, and a propped-up tablet will happily film the room behind them. Keep the tablet in view and in a shared space, not on the bed or the sofa.
Your family agreement
A short written agreement settles most arguments before they start, and it works well when it covers the whole household rather than only the youngest. These lines cover most of what families need:
- Devices stay in the kitchen or living room, and never in bedrooms.
- No screens at meals, and adults put their phones down too.
- Ask an adult before downloading anything, and before adding a new contact.
- Ask an adult before posting a photo of anyone.
- No spending without approval, on any device, for any amount.
- Tell a grown-up straight away if something online feels wrong. You will not get in trouble for telling us.
Write it on one page, date it, stick it somewhere visible, and review it every six months. The rules stay the same. The times and the apps change.
If something goes wrong
It will happen eventually. A four-year-old will see something they should not, because filters are never completely effective and children are curious. What decides how it lands is what you do in the first minute.
- Stay calm. Your reaction tells your child whether it is safe to tell you things, and they will remember it.
- Let them tell you in their own words, and do not ask leading questions or look shocked.
- Work out how they got there, so you can close the route. Block the account, change the filter, or remove the app.
- Say clearly that it is not their fault. Curiosity is normal at this age.
- Report it to CEOP. If an image of your child has been shared online, Report Remove can get it taken down.
- Tell the other adults who look after your child, so it does not happen again on someone else's device.
| Where to get help | Contact |
|---|---|
| NSPCC Helpline, for worried parents and carers, free and open 24 hours a day | 0808 800 5000 |
| Childline, free and open 24 hours a day for children and young people | 0800 1111 |
| CEOP, to report content that concerns you or a child at risk | ceop.police.uk |
| Report Remove, to take down images of a child that have been shared online | reportremove.org.uk |
| The police, for anything that was a crime. Call 999 if a child is in immediate danger | 101 |
Common questions parents ask
How much screen time should a 2 to 5 year old have?
Government guidance and the World Health Organisation both recommend no more than one hour of sedentary screen time a day for children aged 2 to 5, and less than that is better. Under-twos should not be on screens at all, apart from video calls with family. Keep the limit for tablets, phones, computers and TVs combined.
Is YouTube safe for my 4-year-old?
YouTube Kids is the safer version, and it works well when you set it up properly. Create a child profile, pick the Preschool age band, choose approved content only, turn autoplay off and set the timer. It still contains adverts and user-uploaded videos, so keep an eye on what gets watched rather than treating it as a sealed box.
Should my child have their own tablet?
NHS advice for under-fives is to allow access rather than ownership. A shared family tablet that lives in the living room and stays in supervised use causes far fewer problems than a tablet that lives in a bedroom. If you do buy one, treat it as a shared device that happens to have your child's picture on the home screen.
What parental controls should I set up on a tablet?
Turn off in-app purchases and put a PIN on the app store, turn off autoplay, turn off contact from strangers, turn off location sharing, restrict camera and microphone permissions, set a daily screen time limit with a bedtime schedule, and create a child account rather than letting them use your own.
How do I stop my child buying things by accident?
Switch off in-app purchases on the device, put a PIN or password on the app store so nothing installs without you, and remove your card from your child's account. Where a platform allows it, set a spending limit, and fund any games with a fixed value gift card so the balance cannot run past what you agreed.
My older child has a tablet. Can my 3-year-old use it?
It can work, but the tablet needs a separate child profile for the younger child, and you need to check which profile is signed in each time it is handed over. Ask your older child what they have installed, keep the app list to things you have approved, and remember that an older sibling is often the person who shows a preschooler something unsuitable.
Should a young child use AI chatbots or a smart speaker?
Current government guidance advises avoiding AI toys, chatbots, smart speakers and interactive robots for under-fives, because there is not yet enough evidence on how they affect young children's development. That is a reasonable position for this age group, and it is much easier to hold the line before a child has formed an attachment to one.
What do I do if my child sees something inappropriate online?
Stay calm and let them tell you. Work out how they came across it so you can block the source, set the relevant filter or remove the app. Reassure them it is not their fault, and report it to CEOP. If an image of your child has been shared online, Report Remove can usually get it taken down quickly.
How this fits alongside preschool life
Online safety is part of safeguarding, and safeguarding starts long before a child can read. At Magical Moments Preschool we use the Thrive Approach to help children name their feelings and build the confidence to speak up, and we teach our youngest children simple rules along the lines of the NSPCC's PANTS: Private parts are private, Ask an adult for help, Never keep a bad secret, Talk to someone you trust, and I can always ask for help.
Every child here is told that they can talk to any adult in the building, and we would far rather a child tell us something small than keep it. The same principle runs at home, and it is the reason this guide starts with conversation rather than with settings. Our safeguarding and child protection policies are available to read at any time, and we are happy to talk through any of this with you at drop-off.
There is a useful link between the one-hour screen time limit and the rest of a child's day. Screen time works best when it is the small part rather than the main event, and the days when children sleep well, move a lot and play hard are the days when an hour of screen time causes the least friction. We have more on why that matters in our guide to learning through play and on outdoor learning.
Sources and further reading
Every factual claim in this guide comes from the sources below. We have used official UK guidance, the two main children's online safety charities, and the BBC, rather than summaries of them.
- A parent's guide to online safety for children under five (NSPCC)
- Children and technology: age-appropriate usage advice (NSPCC)
- Parental controls (NSPCC)
- How to keep early years children safe online (Internet Matters, October 2026)
- Layer up for online safety (Internet Matters, 2026)
- Safe screen: child development, 1 to 5 years (NHS Healthier Together)
- CBeebies free apps for kids (BBC)
- Fact sheet: New rules to protect children online (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, 15 June 2026)
Last reviewed in October 2026. The 2026 rules for under-16s are still being developed, and the government said in July 2026 that further detail would follow on age assurance and on how the restrictions will be enforced. We will update this guide as that detail arrives.