Family Media Agreement: A Template You Can Actually Use

Rules work better when everyone agrees to them. A family media agreement puts your screen time expectations in writing — and holds the whole family accountable, not just the kids.

Here's a practical template you can adapt for your household.

How to Use This

Print it out or copy it into a shared doc. Sit down as a family and go through each section. Let everyone weigh in. Edit it until it feels fair. Then everyone signs it — parents included.

The Agreement

We, the [Your Family Name] family, agree to the following guidelines for technology use in our home:

Screen-Free Times

• During meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
• One hour before bedtime
• During homework (unless the device is needed for the assignment)
• [Add your own: family game night, outdoor time, etc.]

Screen-Free Zones

• Bedrooms after lights-out
• The dinner table
• [Add your own: the car on short trips, etc.]

Content Rules

• No downloading apps without parent approval
• No sharing personal information (address, school name, phone number) online
• If you see something upsetting or confusing, tell a parent — you won't be in trouble
• Content filters stay on — disabling them is a breach of this agreement

Social Media

• Minimum age for social media accounts: [family decides together]
• Parents may have login credentials for safety purposes
• No posting photos of other people without their permission
• Private accounts only until age [family decides]

Respect and Communication

• Everyone puts their phone down when someone is talking to them
• If you need more screen time for a specific reason, ask — don't sneak
• Parents will respect kids' privacy and won't read private messages without cause
• We will revisit this agreement every [month/quarter] and update it together

Consequences

• First violation: conversation about what happened
• Second violation: loss of recreational screen time for [time period]
• Third violation: device privilege is paused for [time period]
• Repeated violations: the agreement gets renegotiated

Signatures

_______________ (Parent)

_______________ (Parent)

_______________ (Child)

_______________ (Child)

Date: _______________

Why This Works

Written agreements work better than verbal rules for a simple reason: they remove ambiguity. When a disagreement comes up, you point to the document — not your memory of a conversation. Kids respond better to written expectations because it feels less arbitrary and more like a system they had a hand in creating.

Revisiting the agreement regularly is critical. What works for a 10-year-old won't work for a 14-year-old. Let the agreement grow with your family.

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Need help enforcing the content rules in your family agreement? Dopamine Defender uses on-device AI to handle the hard parts — blocking explicit content and curbing doomscrolling — so you can focus on the relationship.