I.T. and cyber security for childcare services that protect children's images and family data.
Since 1 September 2025 every service needs a safe use of digital technologies policy, and since 27 February 2026 the law limits personal devices and images of children. We make sure your devices, accounts and photos actually match.
What your regulator expects from your I.T.
Plain-English summaries. We're not lawyers and this isn't legal advice, but we build your systems so you can show you've met these.
Safe use of digital technology
Since 1 September 2025, services must have policies covering how images of children are taken, stored and deleted, parental consent, and the devices used.
Personal devices and images
In centre-based services, personal devices can't be used or carried while working directly with children, and the law limits how images of children are captured, stored and shared. We manage the service devices so you can prove it.
Family and child records
Enrolment, health and custody information is highly sensitive. A breach means notifying families, and possibly the regulator, fast.
The gaps we find most often.
- Personal phones still taking photos. Educators use their own phones because the service tablets are slow or locked out.
- Shared logins on the room tablets. Nobody can tell who accessed what, or remove access when someone leaves.
- Photos sitting in personal cloud accounts. Images of children synced to an educator's iCloud or Google Photos, outside your control.
- No record of who has access. Ex-staff still able to log in to email or the family app months after they left.
Built for how your business actually works.
We look after the tablets, staff accounts, Wi-Fi and Microsoft 365 that sit around your childcare management and family communication apps, so the whole service runs on one secure, documented setup.
- Service-issued tablets and phones, managed and locked to approved apps
- Photos stored only in your service's Microsoft 365, never personal clouds
- Individual logins with MFA for every educator
- Same-day access removal when staff leave
- Remote wipe if a device is lost
- Regulation 168 policy template, matched to your real setup
- Daily backups of enrolment and service records
- Secure guest Wi-Fi kept separate from service devices
Not in the Illawarra? Same team, same standards.
We look after childcare services right across Australia. Whether you're down the road or interstate, you get the same setup, the same written response times and the same evidence for your auditor or insurer, delivered remotely by our Australian team.
- Onboarded by video. Risk check, setup and staff sign-in done remotely in your first two weeks.
- Devices shipped ready. Laptops are enrolled and secured before they reach you.
- Same written response times. Your plan's guarantee applies wherever you are.
- Hands on when needed. On site across the Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands. Elsewhere, we arrange local help and quote it first.
No lock-in. Response times guaranteed. You own everything.
TIME
The response guarantee
Every plan has a written response time. If we miss it on a ticket, we credit 10% of that month's plan fee. No forms, no arguing. It shows on your next invoice.
DAYS
The right-fit guarantee
Give us 90 days. If you don't think we're the right fit, we refund your onboarding fee in full and help you move on. You carry none of the risk of switching.
OWN IT
No hostage I.T.
Your accounts, passwords, licences and data are always yours. Leave with 30 days' notice and we hand over everything, documented, at no charge.
Is your service ready for an authorised officer to ask about digital technology?
20 minutes with Shane. You'll get a written summary of where you stand and your three most urgent fixes, whether you work with us or not.
Questions we get askedDo you work with our childcare software?
We don't replace your childcare management or family app. We look after everything around it: the staff accounts, the tablets, the network, the email and the backups, so your software runs on a secure foundation.
Can you help us write our digital technology policy?
Yes. On Total Fortress we provide a policy template mapped to Regulation 168 and set up your devices to match what it says, so your policy and your practice line up when an authorised officer visits.
We only have a few staff. Is this overkill?
Small services hold the same sensitive information as large ones: children's photos, medical and custody details, and family bank details. The size of the fine or the headline doesn't scale down with you.
Find out where you're exposed before someone else does.
Book a free 20-minute risk check with Shane. You'll get a plain-English list of your three biggest gaps, whether you sign with us or not.