A screen-time framework that grows with your child.
Four ages. Four developmental thresholds. One of the clearest starting points parents have for thinking about technology, and a useful place to begin a 2026 conversation.
Where the 3·6·9·12 framework comes from
The 3·6·9·12 framework was proposed in 2008 by French psychiatrist Serge Tisseron and later endorsed by national pediatric associations in France and beyond. It uses four developmental milestones, age 3 (pre-K), age 6 (entering elementary school), age 9 (reading fluency and abstract thinking), and age 12 (the start of adolescence), as anchors for decisions about technology in family life.
It is intentionally simple. It does not tell you which app to allow on Tuesday. It gives you a developmental shape to push back against marketing pressure, peer pressure, and your own uncertainty.
Real-world play comes first.
Tisseron’s 2008 position: very young children cannot yet distinguish image from reality, and passive video does not support language development. Time spent watching tends to displace the back-and-forth interaction that toddlers actually need to learn.
No personal gaming devices yet.
Tisseron’s 2008 position: video games and tablet apps are designed to be hard to stop. At this age, children’s sense of time and self-regulation are still forming, so devices easily dominate attention and crowd out other kinds of play.
The internet, with you in the room.
Tisseron’s 2008 position: before age 9, children are not yet equipped to evaluate sources, understand permanence, or judge what is safe to share. Internet use should be supervised and explicitly taught, not solo.
No solo smartphone, no social profiles.
Tisseron’s 2008 position: before age 12, children should not have unsupervised smartphone access or their own social media accounts. After 12, the internet becomes part of life, with explicit conversations about downloads, copyright, sexual content, cyberbullying, and devices off at night.
What 3·6·9·12 doesn’t fully answer in 2026.
The framework was written before smartphones were the default phone, before TikTok, before AI companions, and before most schools issued devices from kindergarten. It is still useful scaffolding. It does not, on its own, answer questions like these.
School-issued devices in K-2
Your 6-year-old’s school sends home a Chromebook for homework. The 3·6·9·12 framework would have said no personal device yet. What now?
Group chats and voice chat in games
Your 9-year-old’s friends are on Roblox or Fortnite with voice chat. The original framework treats “the internet” as one thing. Today, voice chat with strangers is a separate decision.
AI as a daily tool
Your 11-year-old asks for ChatGPT for homework, or their school is rolling out an AI tutor. This use case did not exist in 2008.
Phones without social media
You want a phone in the backpack for safety, but not Instagram or Snapchat until later. The original framework treats phone and social media as one decision. They no longer are.
Printable resources
Two original guides from Serge Tisseron’s 3·6·9·12 work, plus our companion Screens Pyramid printable. Keep one on the fridge.
The 3·6·9·12 guide
Balancing digital life: guiding your child’s screen time at every age. The full English-language flyer from Tisseron’s framework.
View & downloadApprivoiser les écrans et grandir
Le flyer 3·6·9·12 original en français. Apprivoiser les écrans et grandir selon les quatre âges clés du développement.
Voir & téléchargerThe Screens Pyramid
A one-page printable that turns the 3·6·9·12 ages into a visual hierarchy for home use. Stick it on the fridge or near the family tablet.
Download printableOne short email when we publish something new.
Research-informed, practical, and on the questions 3·6·9·12 doesn’t fully answer in 2026. Made for parents and the schools they work with.
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