It is a common dilemma for parents: how much screen time should you allow your children, who are growing up in a technological world?

Key points: Paediatricians recommend limiting screen time for children

Paediatricians recommend limiting screen time for children Parents say they are unsure of the recommended screen time

Parents say they are unsure of the recommended screen time Children using screens unsupervised in most households

As a tech entrepreneur who makes apps, Steve Molloy sees the power of technology in his young daughter's future.

He agrees there is an element of moral panic over screen time for kids under five years of age.

"I think a lot of parents don't want to say that they have screens but, I mean, obviously people do watch television," he told 7.30.

"It's kind of like McDonald's; no-one admits they go to McDonald's, but obviously people are going."

But the advice that's available can be unrealistic and confusing, parents say.

Confusion over amount of screen time

Alexandra and Steve Molloy think advice on children and screen time is confusing and unrealistic. ( ABC News: Andy Park )

Steve Molloy and his wife Alexandra are carefully introducing Stella to technology.

"What I have heard, just recently, is that you can't show them TV before the baby is 18 months or two years, or even seven years," Alexandra told 7.30.

"I think there is a lot of confusion and no single right or wrong answer."

But Katia Guncer is taking a more cautious approach with her three-year-old son, Zac.

She can easily access advice on nutrition or sun protection, but is lost when it comes to advice on his screen habits.

"[There's] just not enough information out there, so I tend to go by 'better safe than sorry', trying to stick to the hour a day as being sort of [like] the guidelines and research being done by some studies," she told 7.30.

Children using screens unsupervised in most households

Katia Guncer tries to limit screen exposure for her three-year-old son Zac. ( ABC News: Andy Park. )

The study Mrs Guncer referring to is by the American Academy of Paediatrics, and is an often quoted reference in lieu of concrete domestic research and guidelines.

It recommends:

For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting.

For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting. Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing.

Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing. For children ages 2 to 5 years, limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.

But many parents think these guidelines don't keep pace with the tech age, and early childhood experts say young children are using screens unsupervised in between 70 to 85 per cent of households.

The 'moral panic' of kids screen time

Dr Joanne Orlando says there is an element of moral panic about the time children spend on screens. ( ABC News )

Early childhood educator Dr Joanne Orlando believes that parents are trying to fill in the blanks in the absence of good, local research on kids under five using screens.

"Among parents... there is a moral panic," she told 7.30.

"And because it's a fairly new phenomenon, there's not the research yet to back up the best ways to use technology.

"We know where some of the risks are, but we don't know all of them. We know where some of the benefits are, but we don't know all of them."

Dr Orlando says her research in family homes has found that a majority young children are given screens as an unsupervised pacification tool, rather than a conscious education tool.

"Parents do use technology as a way of keeping children quiet or calm," she said.

"It might be waiting in the doctors in the surgery — pull out your mobile phone and give it to your child, just to keep them quiet [and] not running around.

"That is happening in about, the research shows us, about 70 per cent to 85 per cent of homes."

Dr Susan Edwards, Director of the Early Childhood Futures research program at the Australian Catholic University, does not mandate minutes or hours of screen time, rather she recommends finding a balanced approached.

"Even in situations where it is a time based recommendation, the advice is still to make sure that you're attending to the quality of the content that your children are engaging with, that you do what is called 'co-viewing' — you sit and engage with your children — (and) that when children have finished viewing technologies, that you discuss and revisit the sort of things that they have done," Dr Edwards told 7.30.

No screens allowed

Attila Yilmaz has banned screens and mobile phones at his restaurant, Pazar ( ABC News: Jerry Rickard )

One Sydney restaurateur has caused a stir by implementing a "no tech at the table policy".

Attila Yilmaz runs Pazar Food Collective in south-west Sydney.

"We have a lot of children that come in here and they eat and they dine, and they immerse themselves and they are not entertained by colouring books or blocks or electronic devices," he told 7.30.

His decision resulted in global media attention, and some backlash from diners.

"I stand by by my belief that we want people to be involved — and this is not just children, this is adults too, we want them to be involved and interactive and engaged," Mr Yilmaz said.

"I think we may lose some customers, but at the end of the day we will gain customers that we really want — the people who want to come and have an experience, interact with their children, educate them about food and create lasting memories, which I think are really created in the first five years of life anyway."