Background In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus (COVID‐19) outbreak as a pandemic. This led many governments to place restrictions on population movement to aid in pandemic control. These restrictions were expected to produce some type of impact on the daily lives of children and their families. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID‐19 on 24‐h movement behaviours among Saudi children aged 6–12 years, during the pandemic. Methods An online survey of Saudi parents ( n = 1021) was conducted between 1 October to 11 November 2020 to gather information about the impact of the COVID‐19 outbreak on children's 24‐h movement behaviours, parent and child factors that may be associated with movement behaviours, and perceived changes in children's movement behaviours. Results Only 3.4% of Saudi children met all components of 24‐h movement guidelines. Compared with before COVID‐19, children's PA levels declined, they slept more, and their use of electronic screen devices significantly increased. The perceived changes in PA and SB were more unfavourable among girls than boys. Children of older parents, mothers, and those with lower education levels and lower monthly incomes were more likely to meet 24‐h movement guidelines. Conclusion The COVID‐19 virus outbreak unfavourably affected Saudi children's movement behaviours, more specifically, girls, which should be taken into account in future research. The results provide an insight into what has changed because of the COVID‐19 restrictions and could be considered as part of the response strategies in Saudi Arabia.

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The Australian and Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines for children and youth synthesized studies in English and French or other languages (if able to be translated with Google translate) and found very few studies published in English from Arabic countries that examined the relationship between objectively measured sedentary behaviour (SB), sleep and physical activity (PA) and health indicators in children aged 5–12 years. The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the relationships between 24-hour movement behaviours and health indicators in school-aged children from Arab-speaking countries. Online databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, SPORTdiscus, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Scopus were searched for English, French and Arabic studies (written in English), while Saudi Digital Library, ArabBase, HumanIndex, KSUP, Pan-Arab Academic Journal, e-Marefa, Al Manhal eLibrary and Google Scholar were searched for Arabic studies. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation framework was used to assess the risk of bias and the quality of evidence for each health indicator. A total of 16 studies, comprising 15,346 participants from nine countries were included. These studies were conducted between 2000 and 2019. In general, low levels of PA and sleep and high SB were unfavourably associated with adiposity outcomes, behavioural problems, depression and low self-esteem. Favourable associations were reported between sleep duration and adiposity outcomes. SB was favourably associated with adiposity outcomes, withdrawn behaviour, attention and externalizing problems. PA was favourably associated with improved self-esteem and adiposity outcomes. Further studies to address the inequality in the literature in the Arab-speaking countries to understand the role of 24-hour movement behaviours and its positive influence on health outcomes across childhood are urgently needed.