Co-viewing or Earned access?

The difference between Co-viewing and Earned access is mostly one axis: tied to behaviour. Co-viewing sits toward never earned, never removed; Earned access sits firmly toward earned, and taken away. They agree, more than most people expect, on how much, shape of the rule and other families. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Co-viewing

The rule is not about minutes but about company: if it is on, someone is watching it with them, talking about it, pausing it. This is the position with the best empirical support in the whole instrument — joint media engagement is where the language-learning findings come from — and also the most expensive in adult time, which is why few households run it past the toddler years.

What it asks of you

Your actual presence, which is the entire method and cannot be delegated to the screen
Giving up the thing screens are most often used for — a gap in which to do something else
Watching a great deal of children's television

Earned access

Screen time is the household currency: earned by the things that need doing, removed when things go wrong. It is easily the commonest approach in practice and the least often defended in print, which is a gap rather than a verdict. It works, in the sense that it reliably moves behaviour, and the thing it teaches about screens is that they are the most valuable thing in the house.

What it asks of you

A clear, stable list of what earns what, or it becomes a daily negotiation
Willingness to follow through on removal when that will ruin the evening
Accepting that contingency makes a thing more desirable, which is the mechanism working against you

Side by side

Where they differ

Co-viewing is the filled marker, Earned access the hollow one. Widest difference first.

T3Tied to behaviour

never earned, never removedearned, and taken away

Co-viewing sits toward never earned, never removed; Earned access sits firmly toward earned, and taken away.

W1Alone or together

watching it togetherwatching alone

Co-viewing sits firmly toward watching it together; Earned access sits a little toward watching alone.

P2Whether it applies to the adults

adult use is a separate matterthe rules are the same for the adults

Co-viewing sits toward the rules are the same for the adults; Earned access sits toward adult use is a separate matter.

C2How much the week needs themwhat your life allows

rarely needing a screen to get through the dayscreens are how anything gets done

Co-viewing sits toward rarely needing a screen to get through the day; Earned access sits between the two.

P1What screens are

entertainment, at best neutrala skill worth building early

Co-viewing sits a little toward a skill worth building early; Earned access sits toward entertainment, at best neutral.

W2Who picks

the adults choosethe child chooses

Co-viewing sits toward the adults choose; Earned access sits a little toward the child chooses.

W3Their own device

as late as possibleearly — it is how things are now

Co-viewing sits toward as late as possible; Earned access sits between the two.

C1Conflict the household can absorbwhat your life allows

needing this not to be a fightable to take the argument every time

Co-viewing sits between the two; Earned access sits toward able to take the argument every time.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

How much. Both sit a little toward as little as possible.
Shape of the rule. Both sit between the two.
Other families. Both sit between the two.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing