#RaiseTheAge
Join the call to #RaiseTheAge of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14.
Everyone knows that children do best when they are supported, nurtured and loved.
But across Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, charged with an offence, hauled before a court and locked away in a prison.
It’s time for the federal, state and territory governments to do what’s right and change the laws to raise the age, so children aged 10 to 13 years are not sent to prison.
Children belong in classrooms and playgrounds, not in handcuffs, courtrooms or prison cells.
Why we need to raise the age
In just one year across Australia close to 600 children aged 10 to 13 years were locked up and thousands more were hauled through the criminal legal system.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately impacted by these laws and pushed into prison cells at even higher rates, accounting for 65 per cent of these younger children in prisons.
There has been a chorus of calls both nationally and internationally from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, expert United Nations bodies, human rights organisations, medical and legal bodies, and academics for Australia to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
Children need to be loved and supported so they can reach their full potential. Not locked up.