The strip-search of a 12-year-old Hobart girl during a drug raid at Gagebrook last week was conducted under the Misuse of Drugs Act, but this legislation does not make age-specific provisions.

Australian Lawyers Alliance president Greg Barns said the law needed to be repealed to make specific reference to children.

``There's a genuine degree of shock that a strip-search without any degree of judicial oversight can happen anywhere in Australia,'' Mr Barns said.

``There's nothing to stop a three-year-old being strip-searched - I'm not suggesting that would happen, but there's nothing in the legislation to say it can't.''

The girl was strip-searched twice by two female police officers last Wednesday.

The search took place in her bedroom with her mother present.

Deputy Police Commissioner Scott Tilyard said he was satisfied that the officers were justified in searching the girl and that the search had been lawful and appropriate, according to police protocols.

Mr Barns said Tasmania was the only jurisdiction where the rules for strip-searching children were not laid out in legislation.

New South Wales, Victorian and Commonwealth law all prohibit the strip-search of anyone under 10 years.

For a child aged between 10 and 18 to be searched, they must be under arrest or a court order must be be obtained by a magistrate.

A parent or guardian must be present at all times.

Mr Barns said a court order, which he said could be secured ``within minutes'' over the phone, should be required in Tasmania.

Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston said Tasmanian law should be brought into line with other states.

Ms Johnston said inconsistencies across jurisdictions were ``the major problem in child protection''.

She said she had not been briefed on this particular incident but police should need extraneous circumstances to justify the strip-search of a child.

``I can't imagine a human being not being upset, of any age, about being strip-searched,'' she said.

If police did need to strip-search a child, it should be done at a hospital or other ``less confronting'' environment.

Children's Commissioner Aileen Ashford has called for an ``urgent review''.