A new offence which will attract a prison term of up to 10 years will be created to prevent the use of children for crime, and posting offending behaviour online will become an aggravating factor in sentencing.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced the changes at Monday's post-Cabinet media briefing.
The so-called 'social media amendment' will apply to adults and young people and provide courts with an additional consideration when sentencing.
Other changes will be that the Family Court will be given the ability to require - not request, as it does now - children and young people from the age of 10 who commit offences to undertake community activities, such as cleaning graffiti and picking up rubbish.
It will also be able to require that they attend an educational, recreational or activity programme.
As for victims, they will be entitled to attend Care and Protection Family Group Conferences for the first time in relation to children over 10. It will force the offender to confront the victims.
Hipkins said the changes focused on prevention, protection and accountability.
"None of this is about locking up children and perpetuating the cycle of crime. It's about accountability and consequences to help break the cycle of offending.
"We'll continue the careful and intensive work we're doing to prevent young people from undertaking crime in the first place.
"We'll also continue to work on policies and legislation against the gangs that are proven to work and are working.
"I acknowledge youth crime is an increasing concern in many parts of New Zealand. Kiwis have had a gutsful of people acting as if the rules don't apply to them and I've had a gutsful of that as well. The system needs a shake-up.
"We'll back our police to respond faster and give them more tools to better protect our communities and there will be a sharper focus on consequences and greater accountability for offenders by tightening up gaps in current law and we will also be reforming parts of the system as well."
Hipkins said the government had been working on these proposals for some time and there were more to come.
Building boot camps or youth jails for young offenders as National and ACT proposed only served to turn young offenders into hardened criminals when they were released, he said.
"That type of policy does not break the cycle. We know that because they've tried it before and it failed when they tried it the first time.
"The gangs need to hear the message loud and clear that they cannot act with impunity. The balance has shifted. There are consequences for their actions. The New Zealand community has had enough of this type of offending, So have I."
On retail crime, Hipkins said police had been "very" proactive at identifying offenders and arresting them, but there were gaps and the government was working to close those.
He said intensive intervention programmes introduced last year had helped lower reoffending but the rate was still high.
"This builds on the work we put in place last year. I'm not going to rest until we actually see this problem tackled."
Hipkins wanted the bill passed through all stages before the election, but did not think that would happen due to the time left.
Police Minister Ginny Andersen said in a statement the government was also boosting the prosecution service with an additional $26 million to help clear the case backlog in the district courts.
"This funding will allow Police to add up to 78 full-time equivalent staff to prepare their in-court work against those who've committed serious crimes," Andersen said.
Hipkins was speaking to media on Monday after returning to New Zealand last Friday from a trip to Brussels for the signing of the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement and Lithuania for the NATO summit.
Hipkins was also in Auckland for a Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) meeting, where the UK officially become the first new CPTPP signatory outside the original grouping.
