The Attorney-General says he finds it hard to believe social media is helping fuel an increase in young people carrying out ram-raids and robberies.
It comes after police raised concerns about the number of teenagers and children becoming involved in the crimes.
Speaking with AM on Thursday detective inspector Karen Bright said in the Manukau district the vast majority of people involved in ram raids are teenagers.
"I can only talk to our own district (Manukau) and since October we've dealt with 60 offenders, 50 percent of those are 14 and under and just under 90 percent of them are under 17," she said.
Bright also suggested social media might be playing a role with young people often posting videos of themselves committing crimes online for internet notoriety.
But Attorney-General David Parker told AM on Friday he's not convinced social media is to blame.
"I did see that there is a bit of a fashion here caused by social media but I find that a bit hard to believe."
Parker said he was horrified to see children as young as 6 years old are involved in these robberies.
"It's unbelievable, isn't it? An absolute abrogation of parenting responsibilities. Just a terrible, terrible start to a young life," he said.
It was a sentiment shared by National Deputy leader Nicola Willis who joined Parker on AM.
Willis said clearly the parents of these children aren't taking their parental responsibilities seriously.
"You've got to ask what's going on with mum and dad, do they have addictions? Are they getting the support they need? Are there government agencies dealing with them now? What are they doing with them? Because clearly they are not doing their jobs as parents," she said.
When asked by AM co-host Ryan Bridge how to fix the issue, both Willis and Parker said there isn't a one size fits all magic bullet solution.
"I think if there was a magic answer it would have been found, but it is terribly sad," Parker said.
Willis agreed but said there are steps the Government can take to help the situation.
"There are things we can do, we can make sure the police have all the tools they need. Do they need more helicopter time for the police eagle? What are the things they need? We can make sure that when these youths do these crimes there are consequences, so they know it's not a good thing to do and you could end up in trouble."
Meanwhile, Parker suggested research showed teaching children restraint and delayed gratification could help.
"So that people aren't so impulsive and that would have better outcomes not just here but in education outcomes and people being less likely to get addicted to drugs and alcohol."
On Thursday inspector Bright called for the whole community to play its role in the solution, saying police have the tools they need but wider issues are at play.
"We treat them seriously, we do absolutely everything we can, we use a range of investigative tools and we really want to identify those responsible so that this offending does not continue.
"But when we've got 11-year-olds out in the middle of the night driving stolen cars and crashing into retail stores, there is a bigger problem out there.
"There is a part that other people can play including social media, parents, the wider community, keeping these kids in school and people who are receiving these stolen goods. There's a lot of things that can be done and it's not just a police issue to solve."
Multiple stores across the Auckland region have been ram-raided and robbed in the past week.
A dairy owner in Penrose told Newshub he is devastated after his store was robbed for the second time in two weeks on Friday morning.
He said he's at his "wit's end" with the stress and extra expenses forcing him to consider selling his business.
The business owner said he works 60 hours a week and wants the offenders to know he doesn't make lots of money.
