What can Australia do about reports of child criminal exploitation?

Across Australia, there is growing concern about young people not offending independently but allegedly being recruited, coerced and manipulated by adults into committing crime. Recent examples include:

In Australia, data on child criminal exploitation remains absent.

However, it’s a problem governments across the globe are scrambling to find effective solutions to.

What is child criminal exploitation?

Child criminal exploitation has been defined as circumstances where a person or group takes advantage of a power imbalance to “coerce, control, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into any criminal activity”.

These adult perpetrators entice children – through drugs, money or social approval – to commit crimes.

At times threats or violence are used to force children’s compliance.

Criminal exploitation of girls more often occurs via a “boyfriend model”, where the offer of a normal romantic relationship disguises grooming, abuse and criminal exploitation.

Adults exploit children and young people primarily to shield themselves from prosecution. But secondary motivations include the desire for power and dominance, and expansion of networks for organised crime.

Why children are targeted

While child criminal exploitation can take many forms, the “county lines” model in the United Kingdom is among the most documented.

This involves urban drug networks recruiting children to transport and sell drugs and weapons in regional areas.

In other contexts, children are groomed or manipulated to steal cars, transport weapons, conduct burglaries, or act as lookouts.

While this type of exploitation is not new, social media and encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram have made it easier for adult exploiters to access children and shield themselves from prosecution.

Vulnerable children and young people are the highest-risk targets. Particularly at risk are those:

• estranged from family
• neglected or homeless
• excluded from school
• who have learning problems and other disabilities
• who live in residential out-of-home care.

Ultimately, it is adolescents’ developmental characteristics – including their greater need for peer approval, impulsivity and risk-taking – that make them vulnerable to manipulation by older, experienced offenders.

What are authorities doing?

The lack of an agreed legal definition means the true scope of this issue in Australia is unknown.

However, police briefings, media reports and government analysis raise growing concern about adults, particularly organised crime networks, recruiting children into serious offending.

This mirrors international patterns.

In the UK, police and safeguarding agencies have documented a steady rise in identified cases over the past decade, particularly in drug supply and serious violence.

Authorities across Europe have reported similar patterns.

Despite being victims under laws that criminalise adult exploiters, these children are still regarded as “offenders” under increasingly punitive youth justice laws across Australia.

How are countries responding?

The most developed research and responses have emerged in the UK, where this exploitation is formally recognised within policy and practice frameworks.

Multi-agency panels bring together police, social services, education and health professionals to identify and respond to children at risk.

Importantly, children identified as exploited may be treated as victims of modern slavery under the UK’s legal framework. This shifts the emphasis from punishment to protection.

In Europe, collaborative approaches – including a new eight-country group involving Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway – are using multinational taskforces to coordinate policing efforts to identify and disrupt child criminal exploitation activities.

However, there is limited research to help determine the impact of these initiatives.

What could Australia do better?

Australia has an opportunity to be more proactive before child criminal exploitation becomes further entrenched.

A crucial first step is to develop a clear national definition and data collection framework. Without consistent terminology and standard monitoring, the scale of the problem and the impact of any interventions will remain obscured.

Second, responses must be embedded within child protection processes, rather than positioned solely as crime prevention.

Third, multi-agency collaboration must be strengthened. Formal information-sharing protocols between police, schools, child protection and community organisations would support earlier intervention.

Fourth, programs that enhance school engagement, provide education and support to families, and mentoring for children, will reduce children’s vulnerability.

Finally, we need to prioritise accountability for exploiters. Enforcement should focus on disrupting exploitative adult networks rather than punishing children.

Some of these approaches are being implemented in Victoria through recent youth crime policies. These include:

• proposed community workshops
• a planned digital campaign to support parents and young people to recognise signs of grooming
• increased maximum penalties for adult exploiters.

However, a more coordinated national policy, practice and research strategy is needed for Australia to effectively address this trend.

The key question

Child criminal exploitation challenges the often-simplistic narratives about youth crime. It requires us to understand local experience in the context of international trends.

The question is not whether child criminal exploitation will emerge as a defining contemporary youth justice issue – it already is.

The question is whether we will respond early and coherently enough to protect Australian children and communities.