Although the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance (Cap 650) was gazetted on July 19, 2024, a grace period is in effect, and it will not become operational until Jan 20, 2026.

It is directed at 25 groups of professionals, including doctors, teachers, social workers, midwives, and childcare staff. If they suspect a child has been suffering serious harm or is at real risk of such damage, they will be required to report the matter. The government has estimated that over 100,000 professionals will be affected by the legislation.

The ordinance specifies different types of serious harm as reportable. They include endangering physical health or life, such as the loss of a limb, internal organ injuries and bone fractures, and those affecting emotional well-being, such as mental derangement and prolonged psychological trauma.

Sexual abuse, including coercing or enticing a child into rape, incest, buggery, sexual intercourse or any act of gross indecency, also constitutes serious harm.

Cases of neglect, including a failure to offer necessities for maintaining a child’s life or health, or exposing a child to a situation that endangers their life or health, will also be covered.

During the grace period, the government is providing training to the relevant professionals, and advisory groups are being established to formulate guidelines on mandatory reporting.

If, however, anyone imagined that the very prospect of mandatory reporting would have an immediate impact, they would have been disappointed. The latest figures from the Social Welfare Department on the incidence of child abuse make for grim reading. 

In 2024, 1,504 child abuse cases were recorded, up from 1,457 in 2023 and 1,439 in 2022. The figures comprised 595 cases of physical abuse, 522 cases of sexual abuse, 328 cases of neglect, 43 reports of multiple abuse, and 16 cases involving psychological abuse. 

One particular concern was the virtual doubling of child sexual abuse cases since 2014, when the number was 285. It was also troubling that children with hyperactivity disorder or attention deficit disorder faced a higher risk of physical, psychological, or multiple types of abuse, accounting for about 20 percent of cases.

It must, moreover, always be remembered that reported cases of child abuse are only ever a fraction of the total, and that most cases go unreported, with victims left to suffer alone.

Although the mandatory reporting mechanism will undoubtedly help to counter child abuse, it is not a panacea. While significant, it is only one of the many laws required to buttress child safety. Far from being “job done”, mandatory reporting is only the start.

On June 16, the consultation exercise for the forthcoming Policy Address got underway, and child protection laws should receive a high priority. Although not everything can be covered in one fell swoop, some laws are easier to enact than others, notably those where the spadework has already been done (sometimes elsewhere) and the way forward is clear. The most pressing laws include:

A). Failure to protect a child: In 2021, the Law Reform Commission (LRC) proposed the creation of a new offense of “failure to protect a child or vulnerable person where the child or vulnerable person’s death or serious harm results from an unlawful act or neglect”. It will facilitate the prosecution of people who, for example, fail to lift a finger to help a child for whom they are responsible and who is in danger. Into this category fall victims like Yeung Chi-wai, the 5-year-old disabled boy who died in 2013 after swallowing methamphetamine hydrochloride (“ice”) that his carers had left lying around at home. The LRC proposal is based on a British law that, because of its urgency, was fast-tracked through Parliament in 2004. After four years of deliberations, the LRC’s proposal should finally be implemented (although the proposal is sometimes conflated with mandatory reporting, the two are distinct and require separate remedies).

The alarm bells are ringing as loudly in Hong Kong as they are elsewhere, and it is time for them to be heeded

B). Child cruelty law: The updating of the child cruelty law (Cap 212, Sect 27) is long overdue, as it does not sufficiently address emotional abuse. Although the law works satisfactorily when children are physically abused, it is of little use when psychological abuse is involved.

If there is no tangible evidence, such as a wound or bruising, it is almost impossible to bring a prosecution, meaning emotional abuse invariably goes unpunished. Hong Kong’s law is based on its UK counterpart, and the problem in Britain was resolved in 2015 by the so-called “Cinderella Law”, which makes child cruelty prosecutable regardless of “whether the suffering or injury is of a physical or a psychological nature”. Hong Kong must now follow suit, which should be easy enough. 

In 2019, moreover, the Court of First Instance, when handling a child cruelty case that had left the victim in what it called “a vegetative state”, said the maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment for child cruelty “needs to be reviewed” (HCCC 76/2017). However, nothing happened, and, in 2023, the Court of Appeal, when examining the sentence of an offender who subjected two children to what it said was “extreme and callous cruelty”, repeated the call (CACC 89/2021). It said the case “demonstrated yet again the need for a substantial increase in the maximum sentences for this offense”. However, two years later, its call has still not been heeded, and the government should act now before any more tragedies occur.

C). Sexual grooming/messaging on the internet: In 2019, the LRC highlighted the dangers children face on the internet and called for them to be protected from sexual predators using a new offense of “sexual grooming” (including sending sexual messages to children).

On March 25, the Hong Kong police, having surveyed 2,000 students (forms one to four), reported that 63.5 percent had faced sexual advances from adults online. While mind-boggling, the survey reflected developments elsewhere. 

Last September, for example, new research by Save the Children and Western Sydney University revealed that over 6 in 10 children globally now interact with “unknown others” daily.

The alarm bells are ringing as loudly in Hong Kong as they are elsewhere, and it is time for them to be heeded.

D). Child access to internet pornography: Children can suffer permanent mental damage from exposure to pornography, and it can lead to sexual offending in adulthood. It also impairs a child’s development, and a 2022 survey of 989 people revealed that 62 percent began looking at pornography when aged 10 to 15, with 15 percent having first encountered it while aged under 9. 

To counter this, a duty of care must be imposed on adult website operators, with internet service providers ensuring adult websites are inaccessible to children aged under 18 years. If the law is tightened, it will help to assist children’s healthy transition to adulthood.

Although the mandatory reporting of child abuse should help many children, it does not purport to be comprehensive, and a range of other protective measures are desperately needed. There can be no resting on laurels, as the existing child protection regime remains seriously inadequate. If the government uses the Policy Address to signal its unequivocal determination to strengthen child protection comprehensively, it will have made a significant investment in the city’s youth, which can only benefit Hong Kong.

The author is a senior counsel who previously served as the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and an honorary consultant to the Child Protection Institute of Against Child Abuse.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.