Legislative Council passes motion to face up to child abuse lawmakers criticize government for "hea doing" outsourcing responsibility

The Legislative Council today (25th) discussed and passed the MP's motion to "face up to the problem of child abuse in Hong Kong and protect children's rights" proposed by Tian Beichen. Many MPs criticized the government for "outsourcing" the responsibility of taking care of children to other agencies and failed to follow up. Described as "hea do".

Tian Beichen proposed a motion to prevent child abuse.

(Photo by Li Zetong)

Lin Lin cited horror advertisements in the 1980s: propaganda methods must keep pace with the times

Wu Qiubei, president of the Federation of Trade Unions, believes that one of the reasons for child abuse cases is that the government is "outsourced". It outsources the work of caring for children, outsourcing even the responsibility, and does not understand supervision. In child abuse incidents, behaviors such as "seeing death without saving" and not reporting knowledge, and the punishment is heavier.

Lin Lin of the DAB pointed out that the government's means of promoting child abuse prevention messages should keep pace with the times. For example, in the 1980s, there was a more terrifying government advertisement in which a child was left alone at home and a letter was placed through the door in the dark corridor of a public housing. The little hole looked out, but there hasn't been an impressive child abuse advert since.

Li Shirong, who also belongs to the party, pointed out that the government seems to have "hea doing" the supervision work.

For example, Chen Jiapei of the New Democracy Party pointed out that recently a male teacher was caught watching pornographic videos during school hours, and even showed them in front of middle school students for 5 or 6 minutes, which may have a serious negative impact on the psychology of the school children, but the person involved just resigned. I haven't heard of any special punishment or responsibility, but I think it seems to be a problem with the overall social atmosphere and lack of awareness of children's rights.

Law Chi-kwong, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, responded that the government has implemented a number of administrative measures to prevent, identify early and appropriately intervene in suspected child abuse cases, such as issuing guidelines to schools and strengthening inter-professional communication and collaboration in the "Children's Comprehensive Physical and Mental Development Service".

Regarding residential care services for children, the Government has immediately improved some of the existing residential care-related services for children since the "Tongleju" incident, including requiring all residential child care centres to install CCTV systems, and formulating policies on active monitoring and viewing of CCTV records and mechanisms to strengthen monitoring.

Cai Ruolin, deputy director of the Education Bureau, said that the government attaches great importance to the rights and interests of students, and has always prevented child abuse incidents by increasing the number of social workers, promoting home-school cooperation, and providing parents with information on child discipline.

Law Zhiguang said that the maximum penalty of Hong Kong's occupational safety and health legislation has not been reviewed for more than 20 years, which is far lower than the relevant penalties in some overseas developed regions, so it is necessary to propose amendments.

(Photo by Li Zetong)

Law Zhiguang: The maximum penalty of occupational safety and health legislation has not been reviewed for more than 20 years and needs to be revised

In addition, the government earlier planned to gradually increase the minimum manpower requirements and per capita area of ​​residential homes, and to increase the penalties for occupational safety and health-related legislation. The revised draft was also submitted to the Legislative Council for the first reading today.

Law Chi-kwong pointed out that the number of fatal industrial accidents has remained at about 20 per year in the past 10 years, and there is no downward trend. The community generally believes that one of the main reasons is that the sentences for occupational safety and health crimes are low, which fails to generate sufficient deterrent effect.

He said that the maximum penalty of Hong Kong's occupational safety and health legislation has not been reviewed for more than 20 years, which is far lower than the relevant penalties in some overseas developed regions, so he has to propose amendments.

The Legislative Council will hold a banquet next month to bid farewell to the senior officials of Mr. Carrie Lam attending child abuse | The SWD received 1,367 new reports last year, an increase of 45% year-on-year. Government insists on waiting for review