A 15-year-old Adelaide schoolboy will confess to possessing "extremely depraved" extremist material and coaching others online about how to make bombs, a court has heard.
Prosecutors have asked the South Australian Youth Court to sentence the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as an adult in the District Court, where a bigger penalty could be imposed.
If he is sentenced in the Youth Court, he faces a maximum of three years' detention.
Prosecutor Aimee Winra told the court that the "gravity of the offending" meant the boy should be sentenced as an adult.
"This is not simply a case of a collection of a large volume of extremist material, which can only be categorised as extremely depraved and horrific in nature," Ms Winra said.
"The offending goes beyond that — there are active steps by the accused to provide guidance to others online on how to make explosives, suggesting he had a technical capacity to do so in pledging allegiance to the bay'a."
The concept of "bay'a" is to pledge allegiance to Islamic State.
She said detention centre staff also found drawings in his room of the Islamic State flag.
Chris Weir, for the boy, told Youth Court Judge Penny Eldridge that his client would plead guilty to the crimes, but further negotiations were needed to consolidate some of the counts before he officially entered his pleas.
"He's a young lad who was entrenched in his education and has a family who continues to support him," Mr Weir said.
He said the boy was receiving counselling in detention and taking part in a specialist program for children who are potentially radicalised.
"He doesn't accept that he is radicalised, but he accepts what he has done is wrong," he said.
Mr Weir submitted the boy does have insight into his offending and his prospects for rehabilitation were good.
He said the critical consideration was his age.
"He's at a crossroad in terms of dealing with the potential of his criminality and his rehabilitation," he said.
Ms Winra responded that his prospect of rehabilitation was not relevant to her application before the court.
Judge Eldridge will decide whether he is sentenced as a youth or an adult later this month.
