The Ministry of Justice is to review how Jon Venables was supervised after his release from custody in 2001, eight years after he murdered James Bulger.
On Friday, Venables was jailed for two years for downloading and distributing indecent images of children.
Former Home Office permanent secretary Sir David Omand will conduct the probe, which is expected to take three months.
The arrangements for the supervision of Venables, now 27, by probation, police and other agencies will be examined.
Venables was 10 when he and friend Robert Thompson murdered James Bulger in Bootle, Merseyside, in 1993.
