Hong Kong for compulsory reporting the draft of children's abuse regulations on Friday (June 2), and will be submitted to the Legislative Council for review on June 14.
According to the Hong Kong News Agency, the draft defines children under 18 years of age, indicating that social welfare, education, and medical and health professionals are compulsory reporters.During their work, they have reasonable reasons to suspect that children must be reported as soon as possible in the face of serious injuries or actual risks that suffer serious injuries.The maximum penalty that violated the regulations was three months in prison and a fine of HK $ 50,000 (S $ 8589).At the same time, the draft will also provide compulsory reporters with legal exemption and legal guarantee.
Ye Baiqiang, a clinical associate professor at the Department of Children and Youth Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, said in an interview with the Hong Kong Radio program on Friday that the focus of the draft is to strengthen social awareness, threatening potential abusers, and reduce the risk of child abuse from the source.
Draft recommended 23 categories of people who often contact children due to work must be forced to report suspect cases. Ye Baiqiang pointed out that teachers and social workers are in the first line of contact with children, and doctors are more passive.Differential and suspicious bruises.Medical staff can easily see that children are inappropriate, such as bruises and even malnutrition caused by negligence.
In order to respond to the approval of the new legislation, or a large number of reports of child abuse may occur, the Hong Kong Social Welfare Department will increase the place of stay in the children's centers and recruit more foster parents.There are currently more than 950 foster families, providing foster care services for about 800 children, and more than 200 children are waiting.
In 2021, the Hong Kong Protection Children's Association under the jurisdiction of "Tongleju" broke out of child abuse. 34 staff were charged with child abuse, and 12 were convicted and sentenced.Except for registration, the incident has attracted great attention from society.
