Staff phones are banned from the room. But who still keeps your child's photos?
When your child goes to childcare, the centre usually records their day in an app, including photos, notes, attendance and health details. That app is made by a separate company, and that company stores your child's information on its own systems.
Since 27 February 2026, national law limits personal devices, such as phones, in childcare. In centres, staff can't use or carry a personal device while working directly with children, with limited exceptions. In family day care, personal devices can't be used to take, store or share images or videos of children. Photos are taken on devices the service supplies. Penalties apply to providers, supervisors, staff and volunteers who break these rules.
That's a good change for the room. But part of the problem remains: even on a phone issued by the centre, once a photo is taken, it still goes into the app, and the app company keeps it. The Monthly reported in September that these new rules don't cover the millions of children's photos held by app companies. OWNA alone stores more than 50 million photos.
National guidelines ask each centre to set "strict controls" on storing photos, and to decide how long it keeps them. There's no set time limit. But centres don’t have control over what these app companies do with these photos. For a parliamentary inquiry submission, we reviewed six such app platforms, and none of them says it deletes a child's data when the child leaves.
The questions to ask
Ask the director, because your child's educator may not know how long photos are kept. Ask in whatever way suits you: a chat at pick-up, a message in the app or an email.
Which app stores my child's photos, and how long does the app company keep them?
When my child leaves, will the photos be deleted, including backups, and can I download a copy first?
If you ask in person, write down what they say, or ask them to send the answer in writing. For more questions, and what good and worrying answers sound like, see our free resource with questions to ask your centre.
Good to know
At Storypark, photos stay until a parent asks for them to be deleted, The Monthly reported. After The Monthly interviewed Storypark's chief executive, the company launched reminder emails offering departing families an export and permanent deletion.
You have a right to ask for a copy of the personal information an organisation holds about you, which helps if you want copies of your child's photos (question 2). The privacy regulator says 30 days is a reasonable time to reply (OAIC).
If the answers worry you
Keep a note of what the centre told you. When you leave, ask in writing for your child's photos to be deleted, including backups.
Ask your centre the two questions this week. If the answers worry you, tell us what they said.
