The Dangers of Excessive Screen Time for Preschool Learners: How to Ditch the Screen for Old Fashioned Play

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.

If you are a regular reader of our blog, you know how highly we regard play in the development of young learners. (If you’ve missed our previous blogs on the topic, you may read them by clicking here and here). Yet, as important as play is for little learners, it is becoming increasingly difficult to encourage children to forgo digital entertainment for old-fashioned play.

More concerning are recent studies indicating screen time is affecting school readiness. According to research conducted by the University of South Australia, overuse in screen time, in absence of quality playtime, has a substantial impact on child development. Children are arriving at preschool severely unprepared and in need of interventions such as speech therapy and physiotherapy due, in part, to excessive time behind screens.

The issue is particularly apparent in South Australia, where 22% of children are considered developmentally vulnerable. While the numbers are concerning, experts insist the rates can be improved by reducing screen time and increasing the amount of time children spend in play.

According to the Department of Health, screen time for children age 2 – 5 years old should be limited to 1 hour each day, and this includes televisions, tablets, computers and other electronic devices.

If you’re wondering how to encourage your child to skip screen time for regular play, here are some helpful tips:

Model Proper Behavior

Your words hold little weight if you’re demanding your child give up digital entertainment while you scroll through social media on your phone or tablet.

Be the example for your child. Voice how much better you feel when you walk away from the screen. Put your electronics away during mealtimes. Show your child what it looks like to occupy time in ways that do not include electronics.

Set Boundaries

Set limits on when family members can…and can’t…engage with electronics. Many parents start by keeping devices off the table during family meals and before bed. Start small and work your way up to longer periods without electronics. Offer access to screens in small increments (30 minutes at a time with long breaks in between sessions). Be sure to put all electronics away two hours before bedtime.

Enjoy the Outdoors

So much good comes from spending time outdoors. Not only is fresh air beneficial, but outside play is a great way for children to strengthen their gross and fine motor skills.

Enjoying the sights and sounds of nature can be soothing to little minds that are overstimulated by too much screen time. Build outdoor time into your daily routine by playing games in your yard, taking a daily walk, or exploring a local park.

Embrace play-based learning by going on a nature scavenger hunt. There are hundreds of free scavenger hunt cards online that you can download and print to take with you on your adventure (we love this one from Inspiration Made Simple).

Read, Read, Read

If there is one activity that helps children most in their educational development, it is reading books. Read to your child every day. Read multiple times a day.

Read with your child. Use different voices for different characters to make the story more engaging. Raise and lower the volume of your voice to draw them into the action. Ask them questions about the story and encourage them to predict what might happen.

And, once again, model the behavior to your child. Let them see you put down your device in favor of a good, old-fashioned book.

Encourage Organised Sports

Being part of a team can boost a child’s self-confidence, build strong gross motor skills, and improve emotional and mental development.

Sports allow children to interact with others and learn important social skills as well as problem solving and independence.

Ban Screens from Bedrooms

Recent research conducted by the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne found that 43% of children take electronic devices to bed with them, and 26% reported sleep difficulty related to screen time.

Set the boundary that screens stay out of the bedroom. Remove televisions and keep phones, tablets, and gaming devices in the main area of the home. If necessary, many internet providers offer parental controls allowing you to shut off access to the internet during nighttime hours.

Provide Plenty of Play-Inspiring Toys

You are not required to entertain your child every moment he or she is off electronics. Independent play is an important part of learning and children need to know how to entertain themselves for extended periods of time.
Offer plenty of engaging options during electronic down time. Blocks, puzzles, action figures, Legos, and single-player games can provide plenty of play-based learning opportunities.

Reducing screen time isn’t always easy, and you can expect significant pushback if you try to go “cold turkey”. Consider making reduced screen time a whole-family event, with everyone committing to a gradual reduction. Start small and slowly increase the amount of time spent doing things other than staring into an electronic screen.

You may just be surprised at the positive affects you see in your child…and yourself.

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

Additional References

ABC Quality
Family Zone
University of Michigan
Mayo Clinic

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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