- Guide4 of 5
- The lawChildren’s Guardian Act 2019 (NSW) Part 6; Child Employment Act 2003 (Vic)
- Checked9 October 2026
Children on set: employing a child performer in NSW and Victoria
In NSW, employing a child under 16 to act, model or perform for a recording needs an employer’s authority from the Children’s Guardian unless an exemption applies, and the employer must comply with the Code of Practice in Schedule 6 of the Children’s Guardian Regulation 2022. In Victoria a child is a person under 15, and employing one in entertainment needs a licence and a parent’s or guardian’s prior written consent.
General information only, not legal advice. This guide covers NSW and Victoria only, not the other states and territories. The official places to check are the Office of the Children’s Guardian and Workforce Inspectorate Victoria.
Two states, two rulebooks
| Rule | NSW | Victoria |
|---|---|---|
| A child is | Under 16 (s 90(1)) | Under 15 |
| Permission | An employer’s authority, from the Children’s Guardian | A child employment licence, plus the parent’s or guardian’s prior written consent |
| How long it lasts | The period stated, no more than 12 months (s 96) | “Licences are free and, for the entertainment industry, last for 1 year.” |
| Penalty for employing without it | Up to 100 NSW penalty units (s 92(1)) | Up to 1200 Victorian penalty units for a body corporate, 240 for anyone else |
| Hours | The Code of Practice, Schedule 6 | The Act’s general hours and rest-break sections do not apply; the Mandatory Code must not be contravened |
Victoria has no minimum age for employment in entertainment, and a parent who lets a child work for an unlicensed employer faces up to 10 penalty units. The Workforce Inspectorate may still draw on the general hours and rest-break sections when it sets licence conditions. Penalty units are each state’s own value.
NSW: who needs an authority
Part 6 covers a child who, for pay or a material benefit, takes part in an entertainment or exhibition, in a performance “recorded for use in a subsequent entertainment or exhibition”, or in an activity the regulations prescribe. Taking part means acting, dancing, miming, playing an instrument, singing, speaking, modelling, presenting or voice-over work; modelling, demonstrating products, performance art or promotional work; rehearsing or preparing for any of these; publicity for them; or standing in for another child.
Employing a child without an authority carries up to 100 penalty units, and so does causing or procuring that employment, or a carer consenting to it, knowing it breaks the rule (s 92). No authority is needed under s 93(1) for a child employed for a lawful fundraising appeal, for an occasional entertainment whose net proceeds go wholly to a charitable purpose, by a person exempt under the regulations, or by a person the Children’s Guardian exempts under s 102. The Regulation’s exemptions (cl 55) cover a person who acts only as the child’s performer representative, and an employer of a child at least 10 years old, employed only outside school hours, for no more than 10 hours a week. Breaking an exemption’s condition carries up to 50 penalty units (cl 59A).
An application goes to the Children’s Guardian in the approved form with the prescribed fee, and the Guardian must decide it within 14 days of receiving it, a period the two sides may agree to vary. It is a condition of an authority, and of most exemptions, that the employer complies with the Code of Practice and gives the parent the Code, or an approved explanation of it, before the child starts.
NSW: the Code on set
At least 7 days before the child is employed, the employer gives the Children’s Guardian written notice of its intention to employ the child, the place of work, the period, the risks it can reasonably identify in the place, role or schedule, its strategies to minimise them, and any changes to the Code it seeks. The Guardian may accept a shorter notice.
Clause 26 sets the limits for every child: no more than 1 shift a day or 5 consecutive days; no more than 4 hours on a day of schooling; adequate rest breaks and a 1-hour break in each 4-hour period; 12 hours between finishing and starting again; no work after 9pm before a school day; and no more than 50 hours of work and schooling in a week. Among the time clause 25 counts as work is any travel between home and the place of work beyond 90 minutes each way. For film, television and still photography, clause 27 then sets:
| Age of child | Days a week, at most | Between | Hours a day, at most |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 6 months | 1 | 6am–6pm | 4 |
| 6 months to under 3 years | 2 | 6am–6pm | 4 |
| 3 years to under 8 years | 4 | 6am–11pm | 6 |
| 8 years to under 16 years | 5 | 6am–11pm | 8 |
A child under 3 may be employed only if a registered nurse or midwife, neither the employer nor a parent of the child, is present to supervise at all times, advises the employer that the child is suitable to be employed and that the environment the child will work in, its lighting and temperature included, will not cause the child distress or harm, and the employer follows the nurse’s or midwife’s advice in all matters of the child’s care, make-up included (clause 21). A baby under 12 weeks may be employed only where the authority “expressly authorises the employment of a baby”, and clause 22 adds further rules, among them no direct lighting and no more than 4 people, the baby’s parents and that nurse or midwife included, handling the baby in a single period of employment.
Victoria: the licence and the Mandatory Code
Workforce Inspectorate Victoria says a business “can employ multiple children under one licence”, and must notify it of each child through its online portal, preferably before the child starts. Children under 15 “must always be supervised” by someone at least 18 holding a Victorian Working with Children Clearance, unless exempt, such as a parent; children under 12 weeks are supervised by a parent or guardian. “A child must not be made to feel distressed for the purpose of depicting an emotional reaction.” Most records are kept for 12 months after the child ends work; the supervision record for 5 years. Licence holders must comply with the Child Safe Standards.
The Mandatory Code of Practice (2014), among its rules:
- no work later than 9pm before a school day, and no more than 4 hours on a day of at least 3 hours’ school;
- no more than 40 hours of school and work combined in a week;
- a 10-minute rest break every hour, and a 45-minute break every 5 hours, the first starting by 1pm if work began before 10am;
- once a child has missed 9 school days in the job, a tutor who is a registered teacher, for at least 2 hours each school day, unless the school exemption sets the education.
The Code still speaks of permits; Victoria replaced permits with licences on 1 July 2023.