No child seems to have been locked up. The kids are being questioned without parents or lawyers present, and the case itself is baseless, but not sure where locked up bit comes in.
Sure sounds like they're being held against their will, which is one form of being "locked up". If I lock you inside my house and prevent you from leaving, I can be charged with false imprisonment, even though you're not in a prison.
This tactic of defending the government by trying to distract from this heinous set of events by arguing semantics is not new, but doesn’t deserve to be HN.
They have no liberty or agency, and putting them in a cell will not change their predicament in the slightest.
They are locked up