“No screens before two”: How first-time Australian parents negotiate enduring digital media guidelines

Digital parenting guidance often fails to reflect early caregiving realities, particularly for first-time parents navigating screentime. Although professional guidelines have shifted from rigid time limits toward co-engagement and content quality, these shifts are inconsistently communicated and poorly absorbed into public discourse. Meanwhile, technopanic narratives fuel confusion, guilt, and social judgement. While some studies link extended screen use with adverse outcomes, we examine how correlational findings become blanket prescriptions in early caregiving. Drawing on two interview rounds and three focus groups with 23 Australian first-time parents of children aged birth-to-four, and informed by a socio-ecological approach, we explore how parents interpret and reconcile conflicting guidance in everyday care. Reflexive thematic analysis identified five interconnected challenges: rigid and inconsistent guidelines; the limits of daily caregiving; technopanic and anxiety; contradictory, overwhelming online information; and the emotional toll of digital decision-making. Rather than restriction-first messages, policy and practice should advance developmentally informed, parent-centred strategies. Parents frequently relied on online and peer advice, adapting digital practices to household pragmatics and values. Despite awareness of updated recommendations, many continued to cite older, time-based rules for their clarity and perceived legitimacy. Overall, discourse should move beyond fear-based messaging toward approaches that recognise caregiving realities and counter technopanic.