Why Parents Need to Read Stories To Their Children

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.

Talking, singing and sharing stories regularly is beneficial to the overall development of your child in many different ways. While most people read bedtime stories to their children, busy schedules and professional commitments prevent them from giving as much attention as they should, to their little ones. But it’s crucial to set some time aside for storytelling. There are many different reasons for this:

Reading stories and sharing this fun time can help:

Your child understands words, language and sounds, which in turn helps them develop their literacy skills.
Stimulate their imagination curiosity
Your child’s social and communication skills and brain develop
Children recognise the difference between what’s real and what’s make-believe.
Your child understand what change means, know what frightening events are, and recognise the strong emotions that accompany them.
They value stories and books.

Many people wonder whether sharing stories with their child means they have to read. You can also be a great storyteller as well as a role model for your child, just by looking at books with them. It tells them that learning through books is a great way to understand the world around them. Your child won’t just listen to the stories you are reading out to them. They will also learn other things like how a book needs to be held and how you move through it by flipping the pages etc.

There is no specific age at which you need to start reading to your baby, and it’s never too early. You baby will enjoy the time they spend in your arms or beside you, hearing the rhythm and rhyme, looking at the interesting pictures and listening to your voice.

Other ways to learn

You can also sing songs to them when they are little and read rhymes to them. When they grow older and learn to speak, they can read and sing along too. You don’t have to restrict yourself to reading out of books.

You can make up stories or even share some family stories. Many children find this to be more interesting than just reading.

Read to your child in some other languages. In fact, any language they are comfortable with is the one you should use. This helps them understand it better, and you can communicate with them effectively. Children from bilingual households will eventually pick up both languages equally well if you tell them stories and speak with them regularly in both languages.

Being bilingual helps your child learn to understand English when they start preschool. Today, it’s easy to find dual language books, and they are an excellent resource. Many children’s story books are published in two languages, and it helps familiarise them to both equally well, with far less effort.

You have the option to listen to audiobooks or read them aloud in English and them tell your child the same story in the language they are most comfortable with. Since children find the pictures interesting, you can describe those to your children and then build a story together. Anytime is a good time for a story or song – so whether its bedtime, or bath time, or you are in the park, your car, on the train or even when it’s your child’s potty time, share stories with your baby.

Storytelling Done Right

Just as it’s essential to tell your child stories regularly, it’s equally crucial to know when to stop. If they seem bored, disinterested or tired, do not compel them to listen to stories or read to them. You should involve them in some other activity at that point and move storytelling to another time.

We at Clovel Childcare and Early Learning Centres, provide a very nurturing environment for children to learn and grow. For any information about our services, give us a call at 02 9199 0294 or fill in this contact us form

Thanks for watching,
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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