Courts can now order ankle monitors for 10-year-olds on bail

A 10-year-old could now be electronically tagged by court order under radical new laws that strip children of the right to refuse monitoring devices.

Trevor Watts MP outside Toowoomba Courthouse on Friday December 12, 2025 Picture: Humaira Saeed

The state government has defended its recently announced changes to ankle monitor laws, reducing the eligibility age down to 10.

The reform removed the requirement of consent from the child to wear the ankle monitor and would also allow courts to order devices for first-time offenders aged between 10 to 17 during a bail process.

Toowoomba North MP Trevor Watts said regardless of the crime, a juvenile offender would be at the discretion of a judge based on a report provided by youth justice.

“They can be fitted with one of these monitors so that we know where they are, we know what they’re doing and if they do commit another crime it will be easily detected,” Mr Watts said.

Mr Watts said the reform would act as a tool for judges and if they think it would be appropriate to give bail and an ankle monitor, they would be empowered to do so.

“For someone who’s put on bail, the police have quite an intensive way of monitoring,” he said.

“They have to go around the house and have to call in on them and it uses a lot of police time.

“This will make it much simpler, they can look and see if they’re where they’re supposed to be.”

Mr Watts claimed that evidence showed the use of ankle monitors on juvenile offenders drove down reoffending by 24 per cent.

He said he doesn’t imagine there would be many 10-year-olds that would make the criteria for an ankle monitor but emphasised that if they do it’s because they would be a danger.

“There’s a really simple way to make sure that as a young person you don’t end up with one of these monitors and that is don’t commit a crime.”

Originally published as Courts can now order ankle monitors for 10-year-olds on bail