At the end of December last year, the “Tong Le Ju”, a residential institution for young children under the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children, broke the scandal of abusing nearly 30 children by several employees. The police set up a special task force to examine a total of 46,000 hours of CCTV footage. So far, 16 people involved in the case have been arrested officers, all charged with one count of abuse or neglect of a child or juvenile in their custody.
In recent years, there have been a series of serious child abuse incidents that have shocked the society. When tragedies happen again and again, the society cannot be without reflection. The caregivers who are closest to the children, who have the most contact with them, and who should take care of the children the most often become the abusers who destroy children. What's wrong with society?
What are the flaws in building a perfect safety net for children?
The Safeguarding the Children policy is a set of policies that ensure the safety of children by establishing guidelines and procedures to ensure that reasonable measures are taken to prevent children from being harmed.
The United Kingdom, Australia and other countries have established "minimum standards for protecting children" so that relevant agencies can follow clear guidelines to protect children. Hong Kong has no official framework, and the mechanism for reporting, identifying and handling cases is fragmented, resulting in a serious lack of a child safety protection network.
(File photo/Photo by Gong Jiasheng)
There is no mandatory reporting mechanism
, and child abuse has not been exposed for a long time
At the end of last year, Dean Tong Leju received a report from residents near the hospital who suspected that some employees were abusing children.
On December 22, the dean informed the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and reported the case. The police verified and arrested three staff members suspected of being involved in the case. Later, an in-depth investigation was conducted and more people were arrested.
After the police checked the CCTV, it was found that a total of 26 children were abused, ranging in age from one and a half to three years old. Since mid-November last year, it was suspected that some staff had abused the children with cruel methods, including slapping them vigorously and slapping their necks roughly. squatting, smashing the child on the ground from the knee, grabbing the child's body and throwing it at the wall, etc.
The society is shocked by the incident, because the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children is a non-profit organization based on the protection of children's well-being, and has long been subsidized by the SAR government. However, in 2020/21, it received more than 88 million yuan from the SWD.
There are 29 service units under the association, and Tong Le Ju is one of them.
Stuart Stuart, Director-General of Save the Children Hong Kong, told "Hong Kong 01" that this incident reflects the organization's shortcomings in recruiting staff and staff training; on the other hand, the organization also lacks clear system guidelines, transparency and accountability, and employees may not necessarily Know how to avoid harming children.
In addition, regular reinforcement training can help staff clarify where the boundaries of child abuse lie.
(Photo by Gong Jiasheng)
The Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children receives nearly 100 million yuan of public funds to operate each year, but it has failed to protect children well, and it has not even noticed such serious child abuse incidents for a long time, which means that there are many problems in internal supervision and government inspections.
Stuart Stuart, Director-General of Save the Children Hong Kong, believes that all staff of the recipient organizations should be vigilant. Once suspected child abuse incidents are discovered, they must report them in time. What needs to be reported, how to report it, and who to report to are all very important.
However, Situ En pointed out that there is a general lack of awareness in the society to report suspected child abuse cases in a timely manner. Many people worry that reporting will have a negative impact on schools or institutions, creating an atmosphere that does not encourage reporting, which is not conducive to timely detection and stopping child abuse incidents. occur.
According to statistics from the Social Welfare Department, the number of child abuse cases has generally been on the rise in recent years. Statistics as of September 2021 show that the total number of child abuse cases in that year may exceed previous years.
Although the government and institutions will quickly remedy the incident, the tragedy has already occurred, and verbal or physical violence can cause deep and indelible trauma to children.
(Drawing of "Hong Kong 01")
At the end of last year, Chief Executive Carrie Lam promised to pass the mandatory reporting mechanism for child abuse as soon as possible in the "Policy Address". Earlier, the Law Reform Commission (LRC) issued a report suggesting that "crimes without protection" should be added to the "Crimes of Personal Injury Ordinance" to strengthen the Protection for children under 16 or vulnerable people over 16 - including the elderly and disabled.
The offence covers members who live with the victim, who have frequent contact with the victim, and those who have a responsibility to care for the victim—including parents, guardians, and institutions that assume responsibility for the victim’s care, and who fail to take reasonable steps to prevent or stop the abuse can be punished If the victim is seriously injured, the maximum penalty is fifteen years in prison; if the victim dies, the maximum penalty is twenty years in prison.
After the Law Reform Commission's report was released, the last-term Legislative Council Welfare Affairs Committee followed up and discussed relevant recommendations. At that time, the government's inter-policy bureau working group suggested that the mandatory reporting mechanism should not cover community nanny, foster parents, tutors, etc.
Statistics from the Social Welfare Department show that the vast majority of child abuse incidents occur in families, that is, guardians are more likely to be the culprits. The harm caused by domestic violence is difficult for the outside world to easily know the details of, and it is impossible to prevent them.
In order to alleviate or even eliminate child abuse, issues such as the way guardians educate children, mental health and emotional burden are also worthy of attention.
(Drawing of "Hong Kong 01")
At first glance, the "crime without protection" has serious criminal responsibilities and a certain deterrent effect, but there are still problems.
First, the legislative work will not be formally submitted to the Legislative Council for deliberation until mid-2023. During this period, it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no appalling cases. Second, many cases occur within families. If they want to report early, parents especially need to pay attention. of people.
We can no longer ignore it - why is it that those closest to them often harm children the most?
One of the reasons is that parents in the Chinese society have a deep-rooted concept of "not being a good candidate", and regard corporal punishment as a normal thing, and the boundary between corporal punishment and abuse is blurred. .
The second reason is that the overall social environment and atmosphere are negative, and parents' lack of "self-care" will affect children.
In January last year, the Hong Kong Mental Hygiene Association announced the results of a mid-2020 survey on the depression status of Hong Kong residents. It found that the depression index of Hong Kong people reached a new high, with the average score rising to 6.07 points. Respondents said that the pressure is mainly due to politics and society. The environment and the epidemic are more than 60% respectively.
The Legislative Council Welfare Panel discussed reporting and prevention of child abuse in September last year, and announced the number of child abuse cases. The data shows that in the past five years, the majority of child abusers who committed crimes against children were family members, relatives or domestic helpers.
(Drawing of "Hong Kong 01")
Establish the belief of "protecting children",
starting from the prohibition of corporal punishment
The issue of child abuse cannot be ignored, but from some statistics, the SAR government does not take it seriously.
A very simple question is, how much resources have the authorities allocated to deal with it?
According to the SWD website, in 2020-21, the staff of the 11 teams of the Family and Child Protection Services Division handled a total of 7,002 cases, but in 2018, "Hong Kong 01" checked the data and found that there were only 168 social workers in the entire department, and they were also dealing with spouse abuse. Or cohabiting couples, child custody disputes, etc., that is, each person shoulders 44 cases every year, which is really inadequate.
Problems in the allocation of government resources will inevitably affect the quality of welfare services, not to mention the need to deal with reported cases promptly, and even the prevention work is not active.
Faith determines thinking, and thinking determines action - we have to ask, what kind of belief does the SAR government uphold in protecting children, that it is so contemptuous of the anti-abuse policy, and that it is reluctant to start legislation to prohibit corporal punishment and completely eliminate children Hurt?
A recent survey released by Save the Children Hong Kong at the end of last year showed that 42% of the respondents had witnessed children being cared for by corporal punishment or abuse in the past year; more than 80% of the respondents believed that if parents did not punish their children, their children would be spoiled , while 42% of respondents believe that parents have the right to decide whether to spank their children.
It can be seen that physical and verbal violence is still a common way to discipline children in Hong Kong society.
However, many scientific studies have shown that corporal punishment is not helpful for education. 62 countries around the world have comprehensively banned corporal punishment.
Stuart pointed out that since the turmoil against the amendment bill in 2019 and the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, the economy has been down, the unemployment rate has hit a record high, and schools have been closed many times, and parents and children have been under great psychological pressure.
When they deal with some cases, they will find that the parents did not intend to abuse children, but the pressure is too great and it is difficult to manage their emotions, so they vent on the children.
(Photo by Gong Jiasheng)
The British authorities' "Guarding the Children" policy has a comprehensive framework for schools, voluntary groups and other institutions.
The policy has detailed specifications and descriptions on how to treat children, including early intervention, how to prevent child abuse by trusted persons such as teachers or doctors, handling allegations of abuse, and how to have difficult conversations with children, which not only protects children from abuse, Also try to prevent mental harm to children.
In addition, the UK has mentors for children and has clear guidelines on what to do when children say they are being abused.
In contrast, although many institutions in Hong Kong are equipped with "protect the children" policies, charters or consulting services, the government has not issued a legally binding policy.
On the one hand, there have been voices in the community advocating the establishment of a central database for children, but the government has not adopted it for many years. In the absence of unified and clear statistical data, it is difficult to tailor social welfare policies to the needs of children in Hong Kong; on the other hand, from the Teachers, social workers, and SWD staff, all parties lack effective overall planning, planning and coordination. Even if they have the awareness of protecting children, it is difficult to implement every detail.
It is not difficult to imagine that even if the mandatory reporting mechanism for child abuse is implemented in the short term, there is still much room for improvement in the SAR government's awareness, policies and legislation on child protection.
