Personal devices to be banned in childcare centres following abuse case

Victorian childcare workers will be prohibited from carrying personal devices such as phones, cameras, and tablets, with centres that fail to comply facing fines of up to $50,000.

Victorian childcare workers will be banned from having their personal devices on them in centres across the state under new government reforms.

The ban on personal devices, which is also being considered nationally, will be introduced in Victoria from September 26.

Childcare centres who fail to comply may be found to have breached their licensing requirements and face fines of up to $50,000.

The urgent reforms come as Victorians come to terms with one of the most horrific child sex assault cases the state has ever seen.

Victoria Police revealed on Tuesday that childcare worker Joshua Brown had been charged with more than 70 offences, including rape and producing child abuse material.

Alleged sex abuser Joshua Brown. Picture Supplied

Premier Jacinta Allan said the parents of more than 1000 children being tested for sexually transmitted infections would be eligible for a $5,000 ‘immediate needs’ payment.

Ahead of the personal device ban, Ms Allan said Victorian childcare centres were being put “on notice”.

“Childcare centres who don’t comply with this ban will have a fine imposed upon them as a condition of license,” she said.

Ms Allan also announced a snap state review which will explore requiring childcare centres to install CCTV and possible changes to Working with Children’s Checks.

“This will be a short, sharp piece of work that will focus on the immediate actions,” she said.

“I’ll be clear too that we’ll be adopting the recommendations of the review and looking at how we can implement them as quickly as possible.”

The results will be provided to government on August 15.

Early Childhood Minister Lizzie Blandthorn said a new register of early educators would also be set up, similar to the current register of kindergarten teachers.

“We can do that immediately, we can do that within two months,” she said.

Ms Blandthorn said the government was urgently deploying extra resources to the state regulator to monitor the compliance of centres.

And acknowledged that there were “issues” with Working with Children’s Checks (WWC), saying a review that was launched in April was ongoing.

Minister Blandthorn said her state counterparts across the country were in “complete agreement” on many of the reforms.

But said Commonwealth efforts to strengthen the national framework - including creating a national register - were “frustratingly slow”.

Joshua Brown worked at Creative Gardens Early Learning Centre in Point Cook. Picture: Supplied

Recommendations to ban all non-service-issued or unapproved devices from being used by childcare workers in centres were first made back in 2023, in an Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) review of child safety arrangements under the National Quality Framework.

This review’s final report was published four months after an Australian Federal Police investigation led to the arrest of former Queensland childcare worker Ashley Griffith, who was charged with 1623 child abuse offences against 91 children alleged to have been committed in Brisbane, Sydney and overseas between 2007 and 2022.

He was sentenced to life in prison in November 2024.

The report called for the national regulations to be amended to mandate only “service issued/approved devices” could be used in centre-based services when taking images or videos of children.

It also advised that all workers at centre-based services should be prohibited from having personal electronic devices that could take images or video and that parental authority was required to film or photograph children.

Pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith pleaded guilty to 307 offences. Picture: Supplied

A Deloitte Access Economics Child Safety Review, which was open for public consultation last month, also called for a management of digital devices policy.

The policy would rule that personal devices that could “take, store and transfer images or videos, cannot be in the possession of any person while providing education and care and working directly with children”.

It also suggested there should be penalties for non-compliance and that such a policy would be applied to all education and care services across the nation, including family day care.

An ACECQA information sheet on the National Quality Framework changes is due to come into effect from September 1, following the December 2023 review.

It states that childcare providers will “need to make sure services have a policy and procedures for the safe use of digital technologies”.

And includes rules around the taking, usage, storage and destruction of images and obtaining authorisation from parents to take, use and store photos and videos of their children.

“ACECQA is also developing guidance on preparing a policy and procedures for the safe use of digital technologies and online environments,” the childcare body said in its fact sheet.

“These will be made available as part of ACECQA’s suite of guidelines on our Preparing NQF policies and procedures webpage.”

Originally published as Personal devices to be banned in childcare centres following abuse case