MDDI Study Shows Most Parents Guide Children’s Digital Use But Would Like More Support

1. The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) conducted a survey on Digital Parenting in February 2025 to better understand how parents are managing their child’s digital activities.¹ This will inform the Government how it can better support parents in this endeavour.

Parents’ concerns about online harm

2. Nearly all parents expressed concern about online harm or risk that their child may face while engaging in online activities. Exposure to inappropriate content was the top concern, followed by interactions with strangers online and cyberbullying.

Note: Based on responses from parents whose child owned or used a device

3. Most parents acknowledged the need for them to play their part in guiding their child’s digital habits, with almost 9 in 10 of them already taking at least one action such as restricting usage duration or content types.

4. However, only 37% of parents felt confident in their ability to guide their child’s digital habits. For parents who expressed little or no confidence, the main challenges cited were limited time due to work or other commitments, the child’s reluctance to follow rules, the child’s ability to bypass parental controls, and parents’ limited knowledge of parental controls or monitoring tools.

Child's digital usage

5. Usage of digital devices for young children is very high.

   1. 55% of parents of children between 2 to 4 years old said their children owned or used devices of others.

   2. Parents who had already allowed their child to use a device did so as early as when the child was three years old.

   3. Among parents of children who owned or used digital devices, 94% reported their child’s device use for leisure activities with media streaming and gaming as the dominant activities.

6. Many children exceeded the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) recommended daily screen time limits (see Annex A).²

   1. Among children aged 2 to 6, 58% spent more than the recommended one hour on digital devices on weekdays; 81% did so on weekends.

   2. Among children aged 7 to 9, 27% spent more than the recommended two hours on digital devices on weekdays; 55% did so on weekends.

   3. Among children aged 10 to 12, 47% spent more than the recommended two hours on digital devices on weekdays; 71% did so on weekends.

Measures and resources to better support parents and children

7. Over half of all parents wanted more Government support to help them manage their child’s digital activities. In addition to stronger legislation to protect children online, parents wanted access to relevant resources such as online courses guides, workshops, and peer support groups (see Annex B).

8. The Government acknowledges these parental concerns and remains committed to strengthening legislation to better protect our children from online harms:

   1. Since July 2023, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has introduced the Code of Practice for Online Safety – Social Media Services, which requires designated social media services to put in place systems and processes to prevent Singapore users, particularly children, from accessing harmful content.

   2. In March 2025, IMDA rolled out the Code of Practice for Online Safety – App Distribution Services, which requires designated app stores to minimise risk of exposure to harmful content for users, especially children. The designated app stores are also to put in place age assurance measures to prevent young users under 18 from accessing age-inappropriate apps. These measures will be implemented by 31 March 2026.

   3. As announced by Minister Josephine Teo in MDDI’s Committee of Supply speech earlier this year, the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Bill will be tabled to establish a new Online Safety Commission by the first half of 2026. The Commission will enable victims to get timely help if they encounter online harms, and hold perpetrators accountable.

9. While regulations provide important safeguards, we recognise that parents are seeking more support to help their children develop healthy digital habits (see Annex B). We will do so in three key ways:

   1. Make resources more useful and accessible for parents

      • These resources will be tailored according to the various stages in the parenting journey, based on their child’s developmental age range, and their experiences with key digital milestones (e.g. first exposure to screens, first phone). They will be action-oriented to help parents cultivate good digital habits in their children from a young age.

   2. Wider outreach through community touchpoints

      • We will improve community-based outreach to proactively reach parents in their local communities. Through collaboration with community partners, we will develop in-person programmes such as workshops to equip parents with conversation starters to engage their children on risky online behaviours and how to stay safe online. The workshops will also share ideas on offline activities to encourage family bonding. We will complement these programmes through enhanced online offerings that parents can access anytime, anywhere.

   3. Partner community organisations and industry

      • We will work with partners such as parent influencers to amplify and share bite-sized content through social media. We will also work with grassroots, industry and corporate partners to encourage more ground up initiatives and spark a whole-of-society effort to support parenting in the digital era.

10. Minister of Digital Development and Information, Mrs Josephine Teo said: “Parenting has always been challenging, and the digital age has introduced new complexities. Returning to a play-based childhood will take time and begins with reshaping norms in children’s digital habits. By working hand in hand with community partners, we can strengthen one another’s efforts, reassuring parents that they are not alone and that support will always be available.”

11. Minister of State for Digital Development and Information, Mdm Rahayu Mahzam said: “Over the years, we have built a sizeable pool of resources to support parents in the digital age through close partnerships with the people, private, and public sectors, particularly through the Digital for Life movement. However, fostering healthy digital habits among our young requires sustained and collective effort. We will continue working closely with organisations not only to co-create engaging and practical resources and programmes, but also make them more convenient and accessible for parents.”

¹The inaugural Digital Parenting Survey was conducted online in February 2025. Valid responses were received from 1,986 Singapore resident parents with children aged 2 to 17 years old. The survey aimed to understand parents’ experience in managing their child’s digital activities. The sample was weighted accordingly to ensure representativeness of Singapore resident parent population in terms of age, gender, or race. The estimated margin of error is 2.2% at 95% confidence interval.

²MOH's Guidance on Screen Use in Children provides practical suggestions to families with children aged 0 to 12 years old on how to organise and manage their children’s screen use. Children under 18 months should avoid screen time altogether. Children between 18 months and 6 years old should have less than 1 hour of screen use a day outside school. Children between 7 and 12 years old should limit screen use to less than 2 hours a day unless it is related to schoolwork.