Staff banned from using personal devices to photograph children at early education and care centres under new code from Monday

The use of personal phones to photograph children will be banned from Monday in early childhood education and care centres which have signed up to the new National Model Code and Guidelines.

Staff at any childcare providers which adopt the code and guidelines — a strongly recommended measure — must only carry personal devices under limited circumstances, such as for health or family reasons.

Photographs of children will only be permitted on service issued devices from Monday.

The guidelines define a personal device as anything that can take images or videos, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, tablets, smartwatches and “other new and emerging technologies, where those technologies have image taking or video recording capability”.

The guidelines also address personal storage devices such as SD cards, USB drives, hard drives, in addition to the “use of a cloud-based application which can store images or video recordings.”

The new guidelines are designed to be used by long day care, pre-schools, and kindergartens — it excludes outside school hours care (OSHC), but can be adapted to suit the context of any care service provider, the guidelines state.

Minister for Education Jason Clare and the Minister for Early Childhood Education Dr Anne Aly released a joint statement on Monday to outline the new rules.

“In place from today, the new Code and Guidelines set out that only service-issued devices can be used when photographing and filming children,” the statement said.

The Federal, State and Territory Government action comes in response to recommendations by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).

Clare praised the nation’s current childcare system but said more could be done.

“Australia has a very good system of early childhood education and care, but more can be done to make sure safety guidance and measures are fit-for-purpose.

“The safety and protection of children in early childhood education is our highest priority.”

Aly added that the child safety reform ensures that safety measures “remain contemporary and fit-for-purpose” and that a “child-safe culture” is embedded in provider services.

The “child-safe culture” section of the guidelines raised questions about consent to be photographed, social media, the management of special events, channels for staff to voice concerns, and internal controls and settings.

State and territory ministers of education and early childhood education across Australia voiced their support of the national model.