Objective: To study parent’s knowledge, attitude and practice towards screen time in children between 1 year- 5 years of age, To identify the common screen based device used, number of such devices and duration of use and identify the association between sociodemographic variables with screen time. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study conducted on 210 parents of children between the ages of 1 year -5 yrs who present to tertiary care hospital in rural Maharashtra over a period of 5 months between May 2022 to September 2022. Data was collected from the parents using a predesigned interview administered questionnaire and analyzed with a suitable statistical method. Results: Majority of parents agreed that an increase in a child's screen time, likely to decrease their effort in physical activity (81.4%) and disrupt a child's sleep pattern and quality (85.7%).Whereas 94.8% believed that Uncontrolled child’s screen time can lead to addiction to the device.Majority of parents (93.3%) felt the need to limit the screen time of their children.Most parents (77.6%) agreed to have encouraged children to play with toys or talk face to face rather than spending time using screen based devices.When we investigated the screen time in early childhood we found that the majority of children (96.6%) of age group below 2 yrs exceeded the WHO recommendation, Whereas in the 2 years- 5 years age group the many kids had screen time as recommended 93(51.6%).Screen time exceeding recommendation was slightly higher in male children(57%), also slight increase in screen time was seen in nuclear family(60.6%) and if it is a single child(56.8%). Conclusion: digital media use among rural children has increased significantly. While parents generally have a positive outlook on screen time, most children under five exceed recommended limits. Further research into socio-demographic factors and the negative effects of excessive screen time is needed for better understanding.

Screen time, children under 5 years, parental knowledge attitude and practice, post Covid 19 pandemic.