Mr Cox's only brush with the law since has been two speeding fines. Over the years he didn't give his juvenile record any thought. ''I just presumed that when I turned 18 it was all over red rover,'' he said. It was not until a few years ago he learnt it wasn't. He had been working as a roof tiler for years and had quoted to do maintenance at several schools when he was asked to undergo the obligatory Working with Children Check.

The check, which examines criminal records, disciplinary proceedings and apprehended violence orders (AVOs), brought up his 40-year-old conviction and he was told he would not get the job. Even though he was only 16 when his future wife became pregnant, Mr Cox was caught under laws designed to prevent adults who had abused or assaulted children from having unsupervised contact with children. ''It's ridiculous. You find out 40 years down the track that your name is on this sort of list of bad people. I've never done anything wrong in my life. I just thought it [having a criminal record] was totally wrong. The guys that asked me to quote the work for them have known me for years. It was a shock to them [too],'' Mr Cox said. Juvenile offenders can be affected by their crimes in adulthood in the Working with Children Check, through criminal record checks and by being placed on the Child Protection Register if their offence was committed against other children or young people. Any juvenile record creates a stigma which stays with the offenders all their lives and reduces their opportunities, says Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell.

''If an employer in the future does probity checks, criminal record checks in many cases, there are many employers who won't employ somebody who has any record. That's very life-limiting for many young people,'' she said. The Working with Children Check, introduced in mid-2000, is under review. So is the system under which sexual offences - unlike some other juvenile criminal records - can never become ''spent''. The federal government said late last year it supports the idea sexual offences by juveniles can become spent ''in certain circumstances'', but is still working on the detail. Some juveniles who commit certain offences against other children, including non-sexual violent offences, are also placed on the Child Protection Register.

Debra Maher, head of Children's Legal Service at Legal Aid NSW, said the Child Protection Register was ''extremely discriminatory'' towards juvenile offenders, especially where the sexual contact was consensual but illegal because of the age of those involved. ''It's outrageous that a person should be labelled a paedophile and be put on the register for a consensual act with a 15-year-old when they themselves were 16,'' Ms Maher said. ''This young person may have committed an offence, but is not a paedophile.'' In one case, Ms Maher said, a juvenile convicted of a minor sexual offence involving a 15-year-old girl had to move out of the family home because he was not allowed to live in a home with children, including his younger siblings. He also lost his job, which may have brought him into contact with children. ''These are unintended consequences of the legislation,'' she said. ''Children should be exempted from the Child Protection Register for age-appropriate illegal activity.'' Outgoing head of the Children's Court, Judge Mark Marien, says the solution is to give the court discretion about which young offenders should be placed on the Child Protection Register and show up in the Working with Children Check.

Most Children's Court magistrates believe most sexual offences prosecuted by the court amount to ''adolescent or pre-pubescent sexual experimentation'', the parliamentary committee heard. The prosecution of ''young love'' offences nowadays is rare. Strictly, it is an offence because no child is deemed able to consent to sex until they turn 16, even if they engaged in the activity willingly. Victoria has introduced a two-year age gap to take account for normal adolescent sexual activity with one partner under 16. Jane Sanders, principal solicitor for the Shopfront Youth Legal Centre, proposes a similar change to the age of consent laws in NSW. The increasing use of AVOs affects juveniles because any AVOs taken out for the protection of a young person will come up in a Working With Children Check.

It captures adults who are violent to children and includes AVOs taken out as a result of schoolyard, neighbourhood or family disputes between juveniles. On one day this month, at least seven young people appeared in Parramatta Children's Court facing applications for AVOs against them by teenage friends or siblings. Loading Mr Cox, 61, has had his Working with Children Check reviewed so he is no longer classified as unfit to work with children, but he has been told his criminal record cannot be expunged. ''We do not feel ashamed of what we did, because it was natural, but we just feel a little ashamed that Neville has this criminal record,'' said Mrs Cox. ''That's the biggest bar [to a job]. Everybody asks and it's so embarrassing to explain. We do not feel we have done anything wrong, we are just victims of circumstances.''