Opinion | Hong Kong’s child abuse laws must be updated as a matter of urgency in 2021

Name: Covid-19 woes dominate messages from children writing to Santa say ‘elves’ at French post office
Uploaded: 2020-12-23T09:00:14.000Z
Duration: 2 min 22 s
Description: Covid-19 woes dominate messages from children writing to Santa say ‘elves’ at French post office

Risks to children have risen during the coronavirus pandemic and the antiquated law must be extended to cover emotional abuse and neglect, sexual grooming, cyberbullying and doxxing

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After an awful year, everything possible must be done in 2021 to provide our children with a future which is decent, happy and safe. Photo: Shutterstock

Grenville Cross

Published: 5:00pm, 23 Dec 2020Updated: 6:26pm, 23 Dec 2020

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the child abuse laws are a vivid illustration. Although improvements have been proposed or are being considered, children continued to face great dangers throughout 2020. Real progress has been lacking, and a far greater sense of urgency is vital next year.

Although, in the opening months of the year, the official figures of child abuse cases declined by a third compared to the two previous years, we cannot celebrate.

In some households, particularly crowded ones where parents feel pressurised, children can be at great risk even at the best of times. In a pandemic, with children at home most of the time, the situation deteriorates.

Because of restrictions, schools and community facilities are closed for long periods, and the teachers, health professionals and social workers who normally identify 70 per cent of child abuse cases cannot exercise their customary oversight.

The good news, however, is that the NGOs, which have received many more calls for help on their hotlines than usual, have done some outstanding work. This has included counselling callers, emergency outreach visits, advice to parents in difficulty, online workshops and providing health equipment.

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Covid-19 woes dominate messages from children writing to Santa say ‘elves’ at French post office

NGOs have also taken the lead in raising public awareness of the extent of child abuse, and their calls this year for the government to urgently formulate proposals for the mandatory reporting of child abuse will hopefully have been heard. There are, however, limits to how much NGOs can achieve.