South Australia has become the first Australian state to implement a formal ban on mobile phones within early childhood services. The new regulation is designed to address concerns related to child safety, privacy, and professional conduct in early learning environments.

In a significant move toward strengthening child protection across Australia, the federal government has mobilized a specialist unit to assist in the rollout of a nationwide Working with Children Check (WWCC) system. This marks a pivotal step in unifying fragmented state and territory-based checks into a cohesive national register.

A childcare educator has been dismissed from a service in White Rock following an alleged incident involving a four-year-old boy, who was allegedly struck with a mop and sustained minor injuries. While Queensland Police concluded its investigation without laying criminal charges, the educator’s termination remains upheld by the centre.

A 26-year-old man, David William James, has been charged with multiple offences after allegedly producing child abuse material while employed at six out-of-school hours (OOSH) care services in Sydney between April 2021 and May 2024.

Parliament has passed legislation enabling the federal government to suspend or revoke Child Care Subsidy (CCS) funding for early childhood education providers that fail to meet prescribed safety standards.

A childcare centre on Sydney’s Upper North Shore has received an official regulatory warning after photographs surfaced showing toddlers with their mouths taped shut. According to the report by 7NEWS Sydney, the incident occurred during what staff described as a “breathing exercise.”

The Australian childcare sector is reaching a critical tipping point, where delayed reforms and missed safety opportunities are placing children at unacceptable risk. As highlighted in recent coverage, Shadow Education Minister Jonathon Duniam has called on the federal government to act without delay, warning that “there is not a day to waste” when it comes to protecting our youngest citizens.

***Warning—Distressing Content*** It’s a sentence we hear too often in our sector: “There was insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegation.” But what does that mean in practice? It means that children—many too young to articulate trauma—are systematically failed. It means perpetrators continue working with children because our system prioritizes procedural thresholds over child well-being.

In an outcome met with collective relief, Victorian health authorities have confirmed that all 2000 children tested for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in connection with alleged pedophile Joshua Dale Brown have returned negative results. The tests were conducted as a precaution after Brown, charged with over 70 offenses involving children aged five months to two years, was found to have worked across 23 childcare centres over an eight-year span.

A recent national study has laid bare a quiet crisis undermining the heart of early childhood education in Australia: childcare educators spend less than 30 percent of their day in focused interaction with children. That’s less than 2.5 hours in an eight-hour shift spent on the very purpose of their profession.