A 13-year-old boy who took a photo of his genitals and sent it to his school mates could be placed on a sex offenders' register, the South Australian parliament has been told.
Independent MP Bob Such raised the issue on Wednesday and said he believed the boy took the picture in question with a school iPad.
The teenager has since been reported by police for producing and disseminating child exploitation material.
The case showed the current laws, which placed sex offenders on a register and restricted their future work and activities, were flawed, Dr Such said.
He and called on the government to make changes.
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The laws were not designed to turn silly 13-year-olds into criminals, he said.
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said the government would look into the issues raised by the case.
"We need to make sure that the mischief that the sexual offenders' register was seeking to address is not diluted in any way," he told reporters on Thursday.
"But also we don't want to label young people for life for some silly prank."
Attorney-General John Rau said at present there were no children on the sex offenders register and the default position for judges in the Youth Court was not to put convicted offenders on the register.
"The judge has to be convinced that their behaviour is so bad that they need to be on the register," Mr Rau said.
"That's completely different to an adult person, they automatically go on the register."
In the case raised by Dr Such, the children concerned would need to first be convicted of an offence, Mr Rau said.
But even then, the chance of a judge ordering their names be placed on the sex offenders' register was "very, very small".
