Darwin: Thirty-three teenagers and young boys incarcerated in Darwin's now notorious Don Dale Detention Centre are to be moved to a former immigration centre that has been slammed for being "completely inappropriate for children".

The Wickham Point Detention Centre, deemed by the Australian Human Rights Commission to be completely inappropriate for children when it was used to hold the flood of people seeking asylum by boat, lies around 50 kilometres south of Darwin.

With the Northern Territory-ruling Country Liberal Party government coming under extreme attack following Monday night's ABC Four Corners report on brutal practices at Don Dale, the Department of Correctional Services moved to address the controversy by shutting the old, outdated centre.

As federal dabinet discussed the terms of reference for the royal commission into youth detention, NT Chief Minister Adam Giles met Correctional Services Commissioner Mark Payne and the Department of Children and Families chief executive to discuss youth detention.