A 10-year-old will not be able to like a photo of their favourite sporting hero on Instagram – but they can still be sent to a detention centre, if legislation proposed by the federal government passes.
On Tuesday Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his government will introduce legislation this year to enforce a minimum age for access to social media and other relevant digital platforms.
But First Nations advocates have pointed out that children as young as 10 can be sent to detention centres in some jurisdictions.
ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People Commissioner Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, posting to social media, agreed that digital exploitation can cause immense harm to the most vulnerable.
“But if kids are deemed too young for the digital landscape, why are we allowing them to be jailed?” she posted.
“If we can raise the age for technology we can absolutely ensure no child or young person is locked up in prisons.”
A spokesperson for Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement to NITV that, “overwhelmingly age of criminal responsibility reform is a matter for state and territory governments.”
Mr Albanese said the social media laws will be informed by engagement with states and territories through National Cabinet.
“We know social media is causing social harm, and it is taking kids away from real friends and real experiences,” he said.
“The safety and mental and physical health of our young people is paramount.”
Spit hoods or screens?
But Greens Senators Dorinda Cox and David Shoebridge said the federal government’s inconsistency on age limitations was dangerous, and that First Nations children would end up paying the price.
Senator Cox, a Yamatji Noongar woman and the Greens First Nations spokesperson, said the youth justice system is in crisis.
“So he [Albanese] thinks that the screen is more harmful than being exposed to a justice system where spit hoods are used on you and you get locked up at 10?” she said.
“We need to show the youth justice issue the same urgent attention that we are showing to social media concerns.
“Children are dying and yet we hear nothing but crickets from this Albanese Labor Government.
“Why is this an issue to intervene in but yet his government won’t provide federal intervention on youth justice?”
‘Unimaginable and tragic’
The peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services says it is bracing for a dramatic increase in child incarceration around the nation, as multiple governments shift back to ‘failed, punitive policies’ and abandon commitments under Closing the Gap.
Karly Warner, chair of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS), said they are already seeing an increase of kids in custody.
“And recent history tells us that the outcomes will be unimaginable and tragic,” she said.
“State and territory governments around Australia are ignoring the evidence on what prevents crime.
“That means more and more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are going to be locked up in circumstances that other children wouldn’t be, compounding generations of structural racism and discrimination.”
Senator Shoebridge, the Greens digital rights and justice spokesperson, said any politician who claims to care about child safety needs to support raising the age of criminal responsibility.
“It is utterly perverse for a child to be old enough to go to prison at 10 but not mature enough to chat to friends on Fortnite,” he said.
“If kids should be protected from the dangers of social media at 14 or 16 then surely they should be protected from the irreversible harms of the prison system at the same age.
“Pretending this isn’t a matter for Federal Parliament is just a convenient excuse for a government that doesn’t want to listen to the evidence and will do anything to pass the buck.”
Flouting international recommendations
In 2019 the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended the age of criminal responsibility as 14.
A report prepared for the standing council of attorneys-general in 2020 recommended that “the Commonwealth, state and territory governments should raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 years of age, without exception.”
In recent months NSW – which introduced harsh bail laws – and Victoria – which backflipped on a promise to raise the age to 14 – have both been accused of betraying First Nations children.
Putting 10-year-old children in jail … won’t reduce crime, it will perpetuate the cycles of trauma.
And the incoming Country Liberal Government in the Northern Territory has vowed to reintroduce the use of spit hoods on children and again lower the age to 10 after Labor raised it to 12, following recommendations by the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children.
“Law and order posturing about punishment, power and control has never worked before and it won’t work now,” Ms Warner said.
“The responsibility of governments is to do everything possible to prevent crime, not to look tough in response.
“We are extremely concerned that the proven programs that actually work to prevent crime – which have never been properly supported or funded – will now be even further deprioritised.
“Putting 10-year-old children in jail and increasing incarceration won’t reduce crime, it will perpetuate the cycles of trauma, violence and government neglect that led us here in the first place.”
Senator Cox said the federal government’s approach to social media wasn’t a solution.
“It’s complicated like the youth justice issue that this government refuses to address, even at the cost of our kids’ lives,” she said.
“If we can recognise the impacts of social media on our children, surely imprisoning them, removing them from their communities, spit hooding them and traumatising them isn’t acceptable either?”
A spokesperson for Mr Dreyfus said the Australian Government remains committed to reform that will enable communities to establish locally tailored initiatives that address the underlying causes of incarceration, including to reduce the contact of First Nations children with the criminal justice system, including the establishment of a landmark National Justice Reinvestment Program.
