Youth crime down as more youngsters at home online

Commenting on the findings of a new report into the reasons why there has been a significant drop in the number of offences committed by youngsters in recent years, Senator Ian Le Marquand said that one of the contributing factors was the rise in the use of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

He said that instead of hanging around in public places, young people were staying in more and going online.

The minister was giving his quarterly update to the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny panel this week.