The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended the laws of member states be changed to ensure that children under the age of 16 can't legally be imprisoned.
It also recommended governments raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 - an increase from its previous position of 12 years old.
The new recommendations come two weeks after 12-year-old Indigenous boy Dujuan Hoosan pleaded with the UN Human Rights Council to stop Australia incarcerating young children.
“This age is really out of step with international standards, and lags behind the rest of the world, where the median age is around 14."
Ms Musk said around 600 children aged 10 to 13 are incarcerated in Australia each year.
“We know that the majority of the children are really vulnerable young kids, children who are either known to the child protection system or subject to protection orders, and who have come from experiences of disadvantage and trauma,” she said.
“We are really harming these children by early contact with the justice system, and by removing them from the protective factors that they find within their families and within in their communities.”
Paediatrician and Adolescent Physician Dr Mick Creati said the most important influences on a child’s development as they transition into adulthood were a connection with community, culture, family and education, and positive peer experiences.
“If we remove children from that positive influence, we set them on a trajectory which makes them more likely to stay in the criminal justice system,” the senior fellow with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians said.
“We know that the younger children get in touch with the justice system, the more likely they are to stay in the justice system."
Dr Creati said focusing on detention, as opposed to intervention, has adverse lifelong impacts.
