Access to Education in Early Childhood: Does it Matter?

If you have heard that the rules around mobile phones and electronic devices in early childhood settings have changed, you are right. If your child attends a childcare centre in NSW, these changes are already in effect.

Here is a plain-English breakdown of what changed, why it happened, and what it means for your family.

Why Did the Laws Change?

The changes were introduced as a child safety measure. In 2025, Australia’s Education Ministers agreed to amend the Education and Care Services National Law to address concerns about the potential for personal devices to be used to capture, store, or transmit images of children in care without authorisation.

The intent is straightforward: children in early learning settings deserve an environment where their privacy and safety are actively protected.

What Changed Nationally

From 27 February 2026, amendments to the national Education and Care Services National Law took effect across Australia. Under these changes, educators and staff who work directly with children are restricted from using personal electronic devices in care settings.

Before this, from 1 September 2025, all early childhood education and care services nationwide were required to have written policies in place addressing the use of digital devices.

What Changed in NSW

NSW moved ahead of the national timeline. The Education and Care Services (Supply, Authorisation and Use of Devices) Order 2025 took effect on 6 November 2025, applying across NSW’s 6,000 or more early learning services, including long day care centres, preschools, and family day care.

Under this order, educators and staff must use service-issued or service-authorised devices rather than their own personal devices when working directly with children.

What Counts as a Personal Device?

The definition is broad. A personal device is any device owned by an individual (not the approved provider) that is capable of capturing, storing, or transmitting an image. This includes:

Mobile phones
Smartwatches
Cameras and tablets
iPads and laptops
Hard drives, USB drives, and memory cards
Wearables such as camera glasses

Who Does the Ban Apply To?

The restrictions apply to anyone working directly with children at a service, including permanent and casual educators, students on placement, volunteers, contractors, and allied health professionals delivering programs on-site.

Parents, carers, and other visitors are not covered by the ban. In NSW, parents and carers remain free to use their personal devices during drop-off, pick-up, centre visits, and events involving their own children. There are also authorised exceptions for essential purposes, including emergencies and health or disability support needs.

What About Screen Time for Children?

These new laws specifically address staff device use, not children’s screen time. Screen time limits for young children are not mandated within childcare regulation at a national level.

The relevant guidance comes from the federal Department of Health and Aged Care’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, which recommend no screen time for children under 2 years, and no more than 1 hour per day for children aged 2 to 5 years. These are health guidelines, not regulatory requirements.

What This Means for Your Family

If your child attends a childcare centre in NSW, their service is already required to operate under these rules. Any educator or staff member working directly with your child should not be using a personal device to take photos or videos. Only service-authorised devices should be used for that purpose.

If you have questions about how your centre handles digital devices or image capture, you are well within your rights to ask. Most services will have a written policy in place that covers exactly this.

At Clovel, the safety and wellbeing of every child in our care is at the heart of everything we do. If you would like to know more about how we support your child across our centres, we would love to have that conversation with you.

As parents, providing a well rounded childhood for our children is of utmost importance. Balancing education, play and opportunities for social interaction can fill up your daily schedule. For some parents, there is a concern that pushing the educational aspect too soon can cause educational burnout – after all, they’re in school for nearly two decades if they pursue a college education. Is education in early childhood really necessary?

The short answer is an unequivocal yes. Studies show that children who have access to early education benefit from improved cognitive abilities, are more social and exhibit a higher level of self-esteem. As former U.S. president, Barack Obama, once said, “Study after study shows that the earlier a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road”.

Let’s look at few reasons why early childhood education (ECE) matters:

Creates Excitement for Learning

When children enter an ECE environment, they receive instruction via lesson plans created by educators who know how to spark excitement for learning.

Discovery and learning new concepts are encouraged, which allows children to develop a love for learning in a variety of areas including reading, science, nature and problem solving.

Encourages Socialization

Teaching children how to interact with people outside of their own family is a critical component of ECE.

Allowing children to interact with their peers helps them develop a healthy sense of self, overcome shyness and increase their self-confidence.

Promotes Whole-Child Development

The goal of ECE is to lay a strong foundation for a child’s long-term development. In addition to education, a quality ECE program will address each student’s emotional, social and physical development.

ECE educators are experts in assessing individuals and identifying areas of strength and weakness. Creating individualized instruction for each child ensures everyone receives the holistic-style education critical for long term success.

Teaches Cooperation

Concepts of cooperation such as sharing, compromise and taking turns are invaluable to healthy emotional development.

Children who do not have siblings at home may find ECE particularly beneficial as it provides them with opportunities to interact with peers and practice principles of cooperation.

Introduces Self-Regulation

Self-regulation is the ability to manage one’s own behavior and emotions in a given situation. Teaching children how to be good learners means helping them deal with challenging emotional situations.

Learning how to deal with difficult emotions, pay attention and actively listen are all important aspects of self-regulation. Additionally, these skills will benefit children beyond the classroom environment and well into adulthood.

Nurtures Curiosity

Quality educators know how to use the classroom environment to nurture a child’s natural curiosity. Teachers will often ask questions designed to encourage deep thinking:

“Why did that happen?”
“What do you think will happen if … ?”
“How do you know … ?”

The key is to draw children into the process of learning using their own curiosity and creativity.

Teaches Teamwork

Helping children understand the importance of working together cooperatively is key in developing the ability to work as part of a team.

Many activities children engage in during ECE are geared to encourage listening and working collaboratively. Once again, learning to work as a member of a team is a skill that will benefit children far beyond the classroom.

Learning Through Play

While it is easy to focus on academic learning, the importance of play for young learners should not be underestimated.

Fred Rogers once said, “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning.”

Mr. Rogers was right; play is the work of childhood. It is the way children make sense of the world and, through play, children develop critical thinking skills that are integral to academic success.

Fosters Resilience

It is in ECE that children develop an understanding of adversity and working hard for classroom success.

Good ECE teachers create a classroom environment where disappointment or failure are accepted as a natural part of learning and do not define the character of a student. They will celebrate hard work and risk taking and, in doing so, create an atmosphere where children feel safe taking risks and learn to handle failure in a healthy and realistic way.

Celebrates Diversity

Understanding and appreciating diversity is a key benefit to ECE. Children will learn everyone is a unique individual, and part of their individuality is their culture, ethnicity and personal beliefs.

Helping children celebrate the differences of classmates will help them develop into confident and empathetic contributors to society.

Early childhood education is so much more than play time (though we’ve certainly addressed the importance of play as part of a well rounded ECE).

It is in the ECE classroom where young minds receive a holistic education – one that addresses not only academics, but also supports the social and emotional development of children.

For any more information, call Clovel Childcare and Early Learning Centre, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. For any information about our Educational Programs, give us a call at 02 9199 0294 or fill in this contact us form.

Thanks for reading,
Clovel Childcare
1300 863 986

Lyn Connolly

Founder and Company Director

Lyn Connolly is the Founder and Company Director of Clovel Childcare & Early Learning Centres, a family‑owned group of eight centres across Western Sydney established from her first service at Merrylands. Active in early childhood education since 1977, she also serves as President of the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW, representing providers in state and federal consultations, media, and public hearings.

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