Raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility

Across Australia, children as young as 10 can be held criminally responsible for their actions.

There has been much recent discussion about the #raisetheage campaign, with many people working in medicine and the law calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 14 years old. Australia's federal, state, and territory attorneys-general have struggled to come to an agreement on the issue, with the Victorian government indicating that the state will seek reform without national consensus.

All of this raises many questions – but the answer to most of them is that the age of criminal responsibility in Australia is far too low, and raising the age will have an immensely positive impact on Australia's most vulnerable children.