What is a child?

In Australia and some other countries individuals from ages 10 to 14 are deemed responsible for their actions and can be charged with committing all but criminal offences, which, according to law, they are incapable of committing (doli incapax). However, age 14 would appear too high. During debate on the Criminal Code Amendment Bill in Queensland it was stated that: “it would be a difficult task to find a child aged 10 to 14 years who does not know the difference between right and wrong according to what the community would find reasonable, especially in a time when it is clear that the incidences of children, sometimes younger than 10, being involved in serious crime are definitely on the increase.” (Crofts, T., Doli Inpax: Why Children Need its Protection.)

At 14 to 18 the full criminal law applies, yet the law labels them children.

There is not space here to mention the sport-playing “children” in this age group whose achievements are on a par with (and often better than) adults. When considered in this light the “child” would be an offender for drinking beer with 18-plus team-mates while being hailed as a hero for winning a competition. I suggest that this expediency is itself a form of abuse.

Senator Conroy might like to reflect on all this and answer, honestly, the question: who am I protecting, and from what? Reading the forgoing should render him the better informed, if he is no so already. And I’d like to think he might also be made the wiser.