Child welfare campaigners said that they will ask the Attorney General to urge an increase in the minimum term two brothers will have to serve for torturing and sexually humiliating two young boys.
The brothers were given an indefinite custodial sentence by a judge who said they must spend five years in detention before they are even considered for release.
The founder of the charity Kidscape, Michelle Elliott, joined other children's groups in voicing concerns over the sentence, saying the young victims deserved the security of knowing their tormentors could not be released for at least a decade.
Dr Elliott was speaking after South Yorkshire Police confirmed they will consider criminal action against the brothers' parents.
The pair were 10 and 11 years old when they subjected their victims, aged nine and 11, to "prolonged, sadistic violence" during the assault in Edlington, South Yorkshire, last April.
Dr Elliott said: "I'm grateful for the indeterminate sentence but I would have urged a 10-year minimum before they are assessed for release."I will be appealing to Baroness Scotland (the Attorney General). Several groups are doing that."
Dr Elliott accepted that the brothers would not necessarily be released after five years but believed the possibility of them being let out while still only in their mid-teens was too worrying for their young victims, who are roughly the same age.
"I think, for them and their families, they need to have a clear 10 years," she said.
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