Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has doubled down on her government's plans to lower the NT's age of criminal responsibility to 10, despite criticism from Indigenous, medical, human rights and legal groups.

Ms Finocchiaro said on Tuesday her government was elected to lead the NT on a mandate of alleviating crime, arguing that "experts can be political commentators all they like".

NT News reported the Chief Minister argued "intervening early to help to turn children's lives around so they do not fall into a life of crime".

"Territorians voted emphatically for the CLPs plan to reduce crime which transparently included lowering the age of criminal responsibility so that we can intervene early and address the root causes of crime," she said.

"We will deliver this reform in the first sitting of parliament as we committed, and as Territorians voted us to do."

There remains little evidence criminalising children as young as ten makes a community safer, with many arguing the opposite is true.

SNAICC - National Voice for Our Children chief executive, Catherine Liddle, criticised the decision and ABC Breakfast on Tuesday saying: "Jailing doesn't work".

"There is no evidence anywhere that putting children into juvenile detention decreases the crime rate," she said.

"In actual fact, all the studies show that those children are the ones more likely to reoffend; those children are more likely to be part of the criminal justice system forever.

"The younger you are coming into contact with those justice systems, the more likely you are to never get out of them."

Ms Liddle said it wasn't about not punishing people committing crimes, but rather getting rid of detention centres and investing in other alternatives was proven to lower the crime rate.

Despite the medical consensus being the age should be 14 at a minimum - backed up by peak Indigenous, legal and human rights groups - the CLP vowed to lower the age to 10 during their election campaign, as well as bring back spit hoods in youth detention.

Earlier this month, the NT's Child Commissioner, Larrakia woman and former Crown Prosecutor and defence lawyer, Shahleena Musk, said whilst she acknowledged the serious concern from NT residents surrounding crime, it did not permit the use of "ineffective youth justice responses that will cause further harm to children and more likely reinforce the very behaviours we are seeking to change".

"I am deeply concerned about the proposed changes to lower the age of criminal responsibility and re-introduction of spit hoods," she said.

The Chief Minister told ABC radio on Tuesday: "What I will say to the people who are creating a scare campaign over this issue is to be more responsible with the information."

Her comments come after Productivity Commissioners Natalie Siegel-Brown and Selwyn Button wrote in The Australian on Monday that the decision to lower the age was "actively putting the truck in reverse".

"Why now step so far backwards, after finally making a step forward [the previous Labor government raised the age to 12]? Especially after the compelling Northern Territory Royal Commission," they said in The Australian.

"The apparent rationale by some governments for exacerbating already alarmingly high rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children over-represented in custody, by reversing progress in increasing the age of criminal responsibility, is that it will increase community safety from youth crime.

"In fact, the very opposite is true."

Ms Liddle previously said many of the children who are come into contact with child detention centres are some of the most vulnerable in the country.

"These are not children that have food to eat at night," she said last month.

"These are not children that know they've got shoes to put on. These are not children who have really safe beds to sleep in.

"These are children that are doing it really, really tough. So when they come into those detention centres, when they come into contact with the juvenile justice system, the outcomes are not good."

The NT News reported newly elected NT opposition leader Selena Uibo said it was concerning the CLP was reverting to failed policies which "will send the Territory backwards and continue the cycle of youth crime".

"What will make a real difference in keeping our communities safe is continuing to invest in our front-line services, extra resources into education and providing pathways to a job and away from a life of crime," Minister Uibo said.