Every kid is different, but IMO the most important meter of screen time is: can they walk away from the device without issues, or can you take it away without causing a meltdown?
If so, everything is fine. How you get there depends on the kid a lot, some need hard screen time limits, some can moderate on their own.
You need to normalise the device, it's not a treat for something else or a magical device that they receive when they go "I'm bored".
As a parent (usually the dad) your #1 job is to make sure your kid is 1000% bored out of their mind as often as possible. Just make sure there are ways to alleviate that boredom nearby. For our kid it's a cart full of crafting supplies: paints, misc crap from the craft store, canvases, paper, scissors etc. For some it's a huge pile of random legos - no full kits preferably. And for others it might be a climbing wall, trampoline or something physical.
As for actual games, I can 100% suggest Toca Boca: https://tocaboca.com
They're not free, but they don't have ads or any kind of predatory IAPs either. Toca World does have IAP extensions to the world, but the price is fine IMO.
All of the games base heavily on exploration. Toca World, for example, has puzzles where secret locations in the buildings open up if you do specific things or find hidden buttons in the world. Otherwise it's just a game you dress up your 2D characters and decorate their world. Not that far off from Sims actually.
In other games you need to figure out what kind of food some weird alien looks like and how do they want it cooked, or how you can breed different types of plants by combining others.
If so, everything is fine. How you get there depends on the kid a lot, some need hard screen time limits, some can moderate on their own.
You need to normalise the device, it's not a treat for something else or a magical device that they receive when they go "I'm bored".
As a parent (usually the dad) your #1 job is to make sure your kid is 1000% bored out of their mind as often as possible. Just make sure there are ways to alleviate that boredom nearby. For our kid it's a cart full of crafting supplies: paints, misc crap from the craft store, canvases, paper, scissors etc. For some it's a huge pile of random legos - no full kits preferably. And for others it might be a climbing wall, trampoline or something physical.
As for actual games, I can 100% suggest Toca Boca: https://tocaboca.com
They're not free, but they don't have ads or any kind of predatory IAPs either. Toca World does have IAP extensions to the world, but the price is fine IMO.
All of the games base heavily on exploration. Toca World, for example, has puzzles where secret locations in the buildings open up if you do specific things or find hidden buttons in the world. Otherwise it's just a game you dress up your 2D characters and decorate their world. Not that far off from Sims actually.
In other games you need to figure out what kind of food some weird alien looks like and how do they want it cooked, or how you can breed different types of plants by combining others.