UNITING EARLY LEARNING - FAMILY & VISITOR GUIDELINES

What’s changing?
From 27 February 2026, changes to the National Law restrict the use of digital devices in children’s education and care services including prohibiting the use of personal devices (with some exceptions) and limiting devices that can be used to capture, store or transmit images of children. These amendments build upon the child-safe practices of the National Model Code for Taking Images of Children in Early Childhood Education and Care and its Guidelines.

Why is this changing?
Personal device use in education and care services has proven to increase the risk of harm to children. Critical incidents where personal devices were used to capture and transmit images of children have resulted in severe trauma to children. When instances of child abuse are recorded and distributed, this deepens the harm experienced by children, as their trauma is exploited by other persons who were not involved in the initial offence.

Personal Device
A personal device is a device that is owned by a person (NOT owned/supplied by an approved provider for education and care purposes) and is capable of capturing, storing or transmitting an image, for example: phones, smart watches, cameras, tablet computers, and hard drives; Devices used for capturing, storing or transmitting an image.

Capturing an image includes filming, recording or taking a photo/image of a child.
Transmitting includes sharing a photo by text message, email, USB/hard drive, uploading to any social media or information sharing platform or any other form of distributing an image or recording, including live streaming.

Please be mindful of the above and help keep our children safe.