The Minns Labor Government will introduce caps on the amount of time students spend learning on screens and online, helping curb excessive screen use, improve attention, and ultimately lift educational outcomes.
From the beginning of next year, public schools will limit Kindergarten to Year 2 students to 15 minutes a day on laptops, tablets or desktop computers, increasing slowly up to a maximum of half the time per subject for senior high school students.
New daily screen-use limits in public schools
- No individual student device use in public preschools
- Up to 15 minutes a day for Kindergarten to Year 2
- Up to 30 minutes a day for Years 3 and 4
- Up to 45 minutes a day for Years 5 and 6
- Up to one-quarter of the time per subject for Years 7 to 10
- Up to half the time per subject for Years 11 and 12
These times would operate across a week of lessons.
Schools will also recommend limiting screen time for homework to help reduce overall screen use at home, with the use of digital devices for homework not recommended before Year 5.
New guidelines will recommend a minimum of one hour a day of learning using pen and paper, reflecting strong evidence of the learning benefits of writing by hand and reading from paper.
It comes as the Minns Labor Government moves to address worrying trends in education, to ensure an entire generation of students learning in an increasingly digital environment don’t miss out on the essential educational foundations of literacy and numeracy.
According to the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment Australian students are nearly twice as likely to spend more than 2 hours per day using digital devices for learning as the OECD average, while academic results are falling – particularly among 12 to 15-year-olds in reading and writing.
The Government’s own $2.5 million research fund assessing the impact of screen use on learning found that although teachers are largely using technology in a purposeful way, only 45 per cent of secondary parents and 32 per cent of primary parents indicated that the benefits of using technologies outweigh the disadvantages.
The same research found that half of students surveyed reported being distracted by screens in class.
The Government’s daily screen-use recommendations will be introduced from Day 1, Term 1, 2027 and become mandatory from 2028, giving schools and teachers time to adjust resources and practices.
The policy builds on and complements action already taken by the Minns Labor Government to reduce reliance on technology and its distractions – beginning with the ban on mobile phones in 2023 and most recently with restrictions on take-home assessments for HSC students to combat the use of AI.
Schools that have already adopted a digital-free approach to learning are seeing the benefits flow through to better educational outcomes.
Digital literacy will remain a core part of the curriculum with opportunities to use online tools in a variety of educationally beneficial ways. The policy aims to significantly reduce the cumulative impact of screentime on NSW children and its impact on learning and development.
The policy includes clear exemptions and adjustments for students with disability, those with additional needs, or students for whom English is not their first language, or where digital support is part of a personalised learning plan.
The Department of Education will support teachers to make the transition with professional learning, resources and comprehensive guidance to ensure that screens are no longer the default for learning in NSW public schools.
Deputy Premier of New South Wales and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:
“An entire generation of students are increasingly living in an online world. We have a responsibility to ensure their health and education isn’t adversely affected by excessive screen use.
“Our government’s research is telling us that excessive screen use is a problem, and that parents want screens to be used intentionally. That means screens should not be the default.
“We have already seen positive results from our ban on mobile phones, with fewer distractions in class and improved engagement – not just with their studies, but with each other as well.
“When the research is telling us teenagers are spending as much as seven hours a day on screens, and we are seeing reading and writing skills going backwards for a whole generation of children, we have to act.”
Chief Paediatrician at NSW Health, Dr Helen Goodwin said:
“A healthy day for children and young people includes a mix of being active, getting enough sleep, and building active social connections with their peers and family.
“We know that too much time spent on screens impacts these important daily activities that support healthy growth and development.”
