Objective To systematically review the guidelines for viral encephalitis in children, and to provide a reference for evidence-based medication in clinical practice.Methods The databases including PubMed, EMbase, CBM, Wanfang Data, CNKI, and VIP were searched, as well as the guideline databases such as NGC, GIN, and TRIP, the websites of medical institutions including CDC, IDSA, AAP, WHO, and Chinese Health and Family Planning Committee, China Guideline Clearinghouse, and Clinical Practice Guideline Network. All the data were searched from the inception of the database or network to October 2014. Two investigators independently screened the literature according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and assessed the quality of guidelines with Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II). The intraclass correlation coefficient was used for conformance test.Results A total of 3 guidelines from the UK, US, and Europe were enrolled, which were released within the past 5 years. The recommendations for all three guidelines were level B. Among the 6 domains of AGREE II, the domain of "scope and purpose" had the highest score, with an average value of 68.54%, while the domains of "applicability" and "editorial independence" had lower scores. The suspected children should be given acyclovir as the empirical therapy as early as possible. Acyclovir was also recommended in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of herpes simplex virus (HSV) encephalitis or varicella zoster virus (VZV) encephalitis, but the recommendation level was different. The former had a strong recommendation level, while the latter had a decreased recommendation level. In addition, corticosteroids were not recommended in children with HSV, while it could be used as an alternative treatment of VZV, even though the evidence was not sufficient. Ganciclovir combined with foscarnet were recommended for cytomegalovirus encephalitis, while cidofovir was not recommended. Pleconaril might be a choice in patients with enterovirus encephalitis.Objective The drugs for the treatment of viral encephalitis recommended by these guidelines are basically consistent, but the development of evidence-based guidelines should be improved in the domains of "editorial independence" and "applicability" in future.