17 JulELAA welcomes ACECQA’s new guidance on using personal electronic devices in early childhood education and care sector

Posted on 17 Jul 2024

We welcome ACECQA’s new guidance on using personal electronic devices in the early childhood education and care sector, announced on 2 July 2024. Named the National Model Code & Guidelines on Taking Images of Children, this newly introduced guidance is voluntary and transitional. As a peak body in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector, ELAA strongly recommend services to use these guidelines in order to enhance child safety practices. 

The national model code includes the following four parts: 

1. Use only service-issued devices when taking images of videos of children while providing education and care in a child safe environment. 
2. Personal electronic devices should not be used while providing education and care and working directly with children, unless for authorised essential purposes. 
3. Essential purposes may include emergencies, health related needs, personal support, and family requirements. 
4. Approved providers and services should have strict control for the appropriate storage and retention of images and videos of children. 

ELAA always puts children’s safety at the forefront of our policies. We have rigorous policies to ensure responsible use of children’s images in materials that promote our vision and values. Our Use of Children’s Image Policy applies to ELAA board members, staff, students, volunteers, and contractors such as photographers, and graphic/web designers. Some key points of our policies include: 

• we only source and use images of children with prior informed consent of their parent or guardian 

• in seeking informed consent, we ensure that parents/guardians are clear how the images may be used 

• images which ELAA commissions and images which are provided to ELAA are stored securely and only used by those who are authorised by ELAA to do so 

• any evidence of the use of inappropriate images must be reported to ELAA’s Child Safety Officer, DHHS Child protection and Victoria Police as appropriate 

• images of children are to remain current, fit for purpose and retained for no longer than 5 years 

• when engaging an external contractor such as a photographer, a Working with Children Check must be presented, and the contractor must complete our Child Safe Standards Induction Checklists 

• the photographer must transfer images to ELAA and to delete those images from their system upon the completion of the job 

• unsupervised access to children or one-to-one photo sessions are not allowed. 

Our policies are reviewed by our governance committee, approved by the ELAA board, and reviewed periodically to ensure they are up-to-dated. Currently, we are also reviewing our PolicyWorks Catalogue, a practical resource designed to provide you timely updates and actionable insights to keep you informed and stay compliant, and all relevant updates will be available to subscribers at the end of July. 

While the National Model Code remains voluntary and transitional, it resonates strongly with ELAA’s commitment to create safe environments for all children. We recognise that many of our members have already embraced these practices as part of their policy framework, demonstrating their commitment to fostering a safe child environment and practice. We appreciate your proactive efforts and look forward to seeing more service providers adopt these guidelines to further enhance the quality and safety of early childhood education and care.