Want to Set Your Child Up for a Lifetime of Healthy Eating? Let Them Play with Their Food!

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.

According to the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare (AIHW), poor diet and obesity are two of the greatest concerns faced by Australian children. Also concerning is the fact that a mind-boggling 96% of children age 5 – 14 do not eat enough vegetables each day to meet the necessary health requirements.

Yet, every toddler parent knows the headache that can come from encouraging your little one to try new or unfamiliar foods.

Why Are Children Afraid of New Foods?

Though it can be maddening to slave over a home cooked meal only to watch your toddler turn up their nose and push their plate away without so much as smelling your offering, it’s important to remember that such reactions are quite normal and are, in fact, part of the survival instinct ingrained in humans.

Neophobia means “fear of the new”, and it is used to describe the aversion children have to foods that are unfamiliar to them. Scientists believe this avoidance behavior is an evolutionary trait that was used by children for centuries to help them avoid eating dangerous or poisonous plants or animals.

To move past neophobia, it is important that children are repeatedly exposed to new foods, even if they don’t taste them right away. It is only through repeated exposure that children will eventually reach out and explore new foods. So, as tempting as it may be to fill up your child’s plate with chicken nuggets…or mashed potatoes…or any other food they love, keep those green veggies on their plate and stay the course. Your child will be healthier thanks to your efforts.

How Can Playing with Food Help?

If you regularly read our blog, you know the importance of play in a child’s learning and development. It is through play that children make sense of their environment…and this includes food.

You may have grown up in a home where “Don’t play with your food!” was a common mantra, but it is time to let that idea go…at least while children are young and still developing food preferences.

When presenting your child with a new food, encourage them to explore and ask questions of it.

What does it look like?

What does it smell like?

What does it feel like?

Rather than viewing a new food introduction as successful only if the food is consumed, consider it a victory if your child looks, smells, or touches the food. That is progress!

Continue presenting the food to the child repeatedly. One day, you’ll be surprised to see them munching away on something they’ve been interacting with (but not eating) for weeks.

As your child learns it is safe to try new foods, you’ll find they become more comfortable with trying new items and it takes less time for them to taste new offerings. And, as their palate broadens, you’ll notice them enjoying a variety of healthy foods and vegetables.

Play Ideas for Food

Here are some fun ways to encourage your child to experience food in a playful way:

Add new fruit to a clear bowl of Jello. Allow your child to dig through the Jello to retrieve the fruit pieces, then encourage them to explore what the new food looks/smells/feels/tastes like.
Have your child sort peas and cubed carrots into separate piles.
Use sliced vegetables to engage in a veggie sword fight.
Get your child in the kitchen! Letting children participate in the cooking experience is great for fine motor skill development and problem solving. And knowing they had a hand in cooking the food increases their curiosity in it and makes them more likely to explore it.
Build towers using disk-like slices of cucumber, zucchini, radish, or carrot. Challenge your child to see how tall they can build their tower before it falls over.
Separate foods on the plate according to color.
Go grocery shopping together. This is a wonderful way for children to explore the sight/smell/feel of new foods. Allow them to pick out a new food to try at the next meal.
Play a blind taste test game. Have your child close their eyes or place a soft headband or blindfold over their eyes. Give them a piece of unfamiliar food and have them guess what it is.

Be Patient

Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day…and your child’s palate won’t be either. Take the focus away from consumption of new food and instead enjoy the little victories when your child interacts with new food in any way.

If, after several weeks, your child is still refusing to interact with new foods in any way, you may want to enlist the help of a counselor who can determine if your child is dealing with a food-related sensory aversion and can offer help.

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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