Screens are becoming an important part of children's lives, and children have been starting to use them more and more early in their lives. Generally, children start to get to know screens within their family circle and through various children's shows. In our research, we were interested in the viewing habits of toddlers and children in early childhood, and in the perspective of their parents on the importance of quality children's shows for their child’s development and learning. Our sample included 239 parents of toddlers and children in early childhood aged from 22 to 52 years (M = 34.90, SD = 5.24), who completed questionnaires about their child's viewing habits, their criteria for quality children's shows, and the way they regulate their child’s viewing of children’s shows. In addition, parents answered questions about demographic characteristics and answered five open-ended questions about the shows which their child watches and which they would recommend to the child; they also answered questions about their views on the possible negative and positive impact of shows on children. The results showed that on average Slovenian toddlers and children in early childhood watch children's shows for approximately one hour a day, and they are exposed to screens before the age of two. When guiding their child through the process of watching children's shows, parents most often use restrictive mediation, and most parents are not always present when their child watches these shows. Parents believe that a quality children's show should primarily be fun, relaxing and understandable, it should include children as the main characters and activities that children can experience for themselves. Parents are most concerned about violent content of children’s shows and inappropriate behaviour of the show’s characters; on the other hand, they most often point out their child's learning and stimulation of their child’s imagination and curiosity as the positive effects of watching children's shows. We can summarize that both positive and negative aspects of Slovenian toddler's and children's viewing habits have been shown, and that it is important to continue to take care of empowering parents and raising their awareness about the development of healthy viewing habits.
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