Family media plan template: how to write one with your kids (with examples)

What a family media plan is

It's a short list of screen rules that the whole family writes together and puts on the fridge. In its guide for parents, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says every member of the family gets a plan, adults included. Mom has rules. So does Dad.

Writing it down matters because spoken agreements drift by Thursday. Your son remembers "an hour after school." You remember "an hour a day, total." Both of you are sure you're right. A written page settles that without you having to referee.

The AAP's online family media plan tool walks you through it: you add each family member, pick a few priorities, and print a summary. It's available in English and Spanish. If you'd rather start from a filled-in page, the templates below follow the same structure.

What goes into a family media plan

Screen time limits are only one part of it. The AAP starts with screen-free zones and screen-free times: the dinner table, homework, the hour before bed. A rule like that is easier to keep than a minute count, because the phone is either on the table or it isn't.

Screen-free zones. The table, bedrooms at night, the car, family walks, or whichever places fit your home.

When. School days and weekends separately, plus the time devices go to the charger.

How much. Daily time for games and videos. Our guide to screen time limits by age lays out what pediatricians suggest for each age.

First things first. Homework, the dog, dinner: what happens before screens.

If a rule is broken. A consequence everyone agreed on in advance.

Next check-in. The date you'll revisit the plan.

The AAP adds two practical items. Turn off autoplay and unnecessary notifications, which the AAP says are designed to keep kids on screens longer. And use one device at a time, so no show on the tablet while a game runs on the phone. We'd put that second one in every family's plan. Parents rarely think about it, and kids do it every evening.

How to talk about it first

Pick a calm day. The evening after a fight is a bad time, because your kid will show up ready to defend. A weekend works better, or the first day of a school break.

Let your child talk first. The AAP's 2026 recommendations give families a "5 Cs" checklist: Child, Content, Calm, Crowding out, and Communication. Each one turns into a question.

What are you into right now, and what's hard for you? What do you watch and play? What helps you calm down? What makes you angry or keeps you up at night? What does your phone take time away from: sleep, practice, friends? Would you tell us if something online upset you?

Then it's the adults' turn. Dr. Joanna Parga-Belinkie, a co-author of the AAP policy, says parents can't carry the weight of digital media management on their own, but they can carve out screen-free spaces: the car, dinnertime, weekends. We suggest the parent writes their own rule first. Then that work chat during dinner becomes a broken rule, and your son gets to point it out.

Family media plan template for kids 7 to 10

Rewrite it in your own words. The parts in parentheses are yours to fill in: times, names, consequences.

The (last name) family media plan. Starts (date).

1. Screen-free times. During meals, everyone's phones go in the basket by the window, Mom's and Dad's too. At night, (name)'s phone charges in the kitchen.

2. When. On school days, the phone is OK after homework and until (7 p.m.). On weekends, (after breakfast until 8 p.m.).

3. How much. Games and videos: (one hour) on school days and (two) on weekends. Calls with Grandma and school apps don't count.

4. First things first. Homework and (walking the dog) come before the phone.

5. New games. We install new games and apps together.

6. If something feels wrong. If a stranger messages (name) in a game or chat, or something upsetting happens, (name) tells us. Nobody gets in trouble for telling, and nobody loses their phone for it.

7. If a rule is broken. The next day, (half a day with the phone in the basket), and that's the only punishment for phone use.

8. Grown-up promises. Mom and Dad stay off their phones at meals and during family games, and if they have to take a work call, they say so first.

9. Check-in. We'll talk about this again (on the first day of school or of summer break).

Signed by everyone in the family.

Rule 6 matters most to us. A kid who's afraid of losing the phone will keep quiet about a creepy message.

Family media plan for teens: example

With a teen, two things change. They write some of the rules themselves, and keeping the rules earns them more freedom. The American Psychological Association's 2023 health advisory recommends that for ages 10 to 14, adults supervise with discussion and coaching and expand independence gradually.

1. Nights. From (11 p.m.), the phone charges outside the bedroom. Fridays and Saturdays, from (midnight).

2. School. Notifications stay off during class and homework.

3. Time. (Name) proposes the number of hours for games and social media. Parents accept it or negotiate once.

4. Messages. Parents don't read (name)'s messages. (Name) tells us if someone threatens them, asks for money, or asks for photos.

5. Money. In-game purchases and subscriptions only after a conversation, and paid from (allowance).

6. Grown-up promises. Parents don't answer work messages at dinner and don't post photos of (name) without asking.

7. If a rule is broken. The first time, we talk; the second time, (the daily limit drops for a week).

8. More freedom. A month with no broken rules moves bedtime for the phone (30 minutes later).

9. Check-in. Every (three months), or whenever either side asks.

A teen who wrote the time rule argues about it less. Anyone who has negotiated chores with a teenager knows how that works. If your teen gets angry at any limit at all, we wrote about why in child angry about parental controls.

What to do when the plan gets broken

Don't invent punishments in the heat of the moment. Mid-argument, taking the phone for a month sounds right. A day later you either back down or the whole family lives with it. The consequence is already in the plan, so use that one, calmly and briefly. Talk about why it happened the next day.

One broken rule is no reason to throw the plan out. A rule that breaks every week was probably written badly: the limit is too tight or the hours don't fit your week. Rewrite it together.

Sometimes screens crowd out sleep, school, and friends, and your child can't stop even when they want to. A plan alone won't fix that. Our guide to phone addiction in kids covers how a habit differs from an addiction. In the AAP's own words: "Talk with your pediatrician if you are concerned about your child's media use and are looking for support."

When to update the plan

The AAP says to revisit the plan often. Good times are the start of the school year, summer break, and the holidays. A plan written for a second grader gets tight by fifth grade: a class group chat shows up, online games with friends, trips without adults. For how the rules change with age, see how to get kids off phones.

We'd write the next check-in date right on the plan. Then your teen knows when to ask for more and doesn't renegotiate every night.

How to put the plan on your child's phone

Someone has to enforce the plan while you're at work. That part can go to the phone itself. In Gardion, most items in the plan map onto settings almost one to one.

"When" and "how much" become a daily time limit, which you can set separately for weekdays and weekends. Nights become a bedtime schedule. For regular weeks there are ready-made modes, School, Weekend, and Vacation, and switching modes changes limits, the night schedule, and school apps at once. You can enter school holiday dates ahead of time, and the schedule switches back by itself after the last day. For a rule like "Saturday morning, no limits," there's "Everything open on a schedule." The games rule goes into a group limit for a set of apps. More in our guides to parental controls schedules and daily screen time limits.

The "can I have more time?" rule carries over too. When the minutes run out, the child's lock screen shows an "Ask for 15 minutes" button, and the home screen has "Ask for time." The request comes to your phone, and your child sees your answer. In our anonymized data, kids in almost half of Gardion families have tapped that button at least once. Parents say no more often than yes. Each request is a chance to ask what the extra time is for, and the decision stays with the adult.

The app counts minutes and locks the phone on schedule. Why the rules are what they are is still your job to explain, at the same table where you wrote the plan. Gardion is free for 14 days with every feature, no card needed. It works with Android phones and Windows computers.

Sources

AAP, HealthyChildren.org, family media plan tool (English and Spanish)

AAP, HealthyChildren.org, "How to make a family media use plan," updated January 20, 2026

AAP, HealthyChildren.org, "Creating a child-friendly digital world: AAP releases new media recommendations," January 20, 2026, on the policy statement "Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents" (Pediatrics, February 2026)

American Psychological Association, "Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence," May 2023

Links checked October 17, 2026. Written by the Gardion editorial team.