How effective are these measures to protect minors after one year’s implementation？
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 1st Question: How effective are these measures to protect minors after one year’s implementation?
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter
Strengthening network protection, preventing and controlling school bullying, and mandatory reporting system … … On June 1, 2021, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors and the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency were officially implemented, protecting "you as a teenager" in all directions.
One year later, how effective are these measures? The reporter of "Xinhua Viewpoint" conducted an investigation.
Network protection: games and participation in live broadcast are limited, and there are still loopholes to be filled.
The new law on the protection of minors adds a chapter on "network protection", which provides for the prevention of network addiction and network consumption management.
Over the past year, all relevant departments have made efforts in succession: in August last year, the State Press and Publication Administration issued a notice clarifying that online game services should not be provided to minors unless the time is specified; In May this year, the Central Civilization Office and other four departments issued opinions prohibiting minors from participating in live broadcast rewards and strictly controlling minors to engage in anchor … …
Each network platform responds. Tencent prohibits minors under the age of 12 from spending money in the game, and carries out face recognition on night game login of real-name users over the age of 55. In the fourth quarter of last year, the proportion of domestic minors’ game time dropped to 0.9%. In Aauto Quicker, highly suspected minor accounts without parental authorization are included in the youth mode and the broadcasting function is restricted. At present, tens of thousands of users have been forced to be included in this mode.
Although many measures have been taken, the reporter found that there are still minors trying to "bypass" the anti-addiction mechanism. Some parents in Fujian reported that children took the opportunity of online classes to "walk away" their parents’ mobile phones and used their parents’ real-name authentication to play games and buy game equipment.
In this regard, Zhang Yiteng, a senior partner of Beijing Kangda (Xiamen) Law Firm, suggested to further improve the anti-addiction mechanism for minors and truly build a firewall to prevent minors from internet addiction.
In response to the problem of "quietly rewarding" some underage users on short video and live broadcast platforms, Shen Aiguo, a professor at Zhejiang University City College, said that parents should take care of their online accounts and related financial accounts; At the same time, relevant platforms should also upgrade technical measures to find and stop the reward behavior of suspected underage users in time.
Bullying prevention and control: the system is gradually improved, and there are still problems such as difficulty in finding and identifying.
Violent beatings, verbal abuse and collective isolation … … The problem of student bullying frequently provokes public nerves.
The new law on the protection of minors stipulates that schools should establish a system for the prevention and control of bullying by students. Over the past year, from the central government to the local government, a series of measures have been introduced intensively.
The Regulations on the Protection of Minors’ Schools, which came into effect on September 1 last year, set up a special protection system for students’ bullying, campus sexual assault and other social concerns. From May 1 this year, every primary and secondary school should be equipped with at least one vice president of the rule of law to participate in organizations such as student protection committees and student bullying management.
In terms of local legislation, the "Regulations on Prevention and Control of school bullying in Liaoning Province (Draft)" was first reviewed in April this year; The local laws and regulations of Beijing, Shanghai, Hebei and Gansu also stipulate the school bullying issue.
Under a series of combination punches, the problem has improved obviously. According to the statistics of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, in 2021, the number of cases of crimes of school violence and bullying prosecuted by procuratorial organs nationwide decreased by 74.7% compared with the same period in 2018.
However, the reporter’s investigation found that there are still problems such as "difficult to prevent, difficult to find, difficult to identify and difficult to deal with". Some teachers have reported that in some "suspected" school bullying cases, the definition criteria are not clear, which brings difficulties to qualitative disposal.
In this regard, the "Regulations on Prevention and Control of school bullying, Liaoning Province (Draft)" defines the specific measures for the prevention and disposal of school bullying one by one in the form of a special chapter. Fu Weichuan, president of Shenyang No.134 Middle School, said that on the basis of legislative norms, supporting measures should be formulated to refine the main responsibilities of family, school, society, network, government and judiciary, and to deal with them scientifically according to laws and regulations, so as to make school bullying’s prevention and control mechanism work more effectively.
Mandatory reporting: A number of hidden cases were found to increase the rigid constraint on non-reporting.
Infringements on minors often occur in "hidden corners" and it is difficult to find them in time. One of the highlights of the new law on the protection of minors is that it has absorbed the compulsory reporting system that has been effective in practice before.
In the past year, the system has played an obvious role. A few days ago, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate reported a typical case: when handling a case of rape of a girl, the People’s Procuratorate of donggang city, Liaoning Province found that in October 2021, Ji Moumou, a gynecologist of an outpatient department in donggang city, performed an induced abortion operation for Sun Moumou, knowing that he was a minor, without a guardian to accompany him and sign for confirmation, and did not report it to the relevant departments. The procuratorial organ informed the donggang city Municipal Health Bureau of the relevant situation and suggested that the medical institutions and personnel involved should be held accountable according to law. The outpatient department was subsequently given an administrative penalty of warning, confiscation of illegal income and a fine of 20 thousand yuan, and the relevant departments were cancelled; Ji Moumou, a doctor, was given an administrative penalty of suspending his practice for six months.
According to the statistics of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, in the first quarter of this year, the number of compulsory reporting cases in Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi and Ningxia all more than doubled year-on-year.
"Mandatory reporting ‘ Every case must be investigated ’ Since the establishment of the mechanism, 2,854 cases of crimes against minors have been prosecuted by procuratorial organs, and a number of hidden cases of crimes against minors have been discovered in time. " Na Yanfang, director of the Ninth Procuratorate of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, said.
Many places have also introduced detailed measures based on their own reality. For example, Xihu District of Hangzhou stipulates that if the front desk staff finds that adults bring minors, especially children under the age of 14, or if minors ask for registration alone or in multiple people, they must ask about the relationship, the purpose of occupancy and whether the guardian knows, and report to the local police station in time.
In other fields, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has taken the implementation of the compulsory reporting system as one of the national standards for the protection of minors. The newly revised "People’s Republic of China (PRC) Physician Law" also provides for the implementation of mandatory reporting system in related industries.
The relevant person in charge of the procuratorate in Xihu District, Hangzhou suggested that the punishment measures for failing to fulfill the compulsory reporting obligations should be implemented in detail and the incentives for active reporting should be increased; Clear the lead department, set up a report telephone for unified acceptance.
Crime Prevention: Strengthening the Construction of Specialized Schools and Solving the Social Problems Behind problem children
Some minors who have committed crimes are out of the control of their parents and schools, and they are caught in a vicious circle of "grasping and releasing".
The new law on the prevention of juvenile delinquency is clear, and the state strengthens the construction of special schools and provides special education for minors with serious bad behavior.
The reporter learned that some specialized schools are exploring a new path of replacing punishment with teaching and intervening in advance to help the delinquent minors return to society better.
"In the early days, like some old-fashioned work-study schools, we relied on a huge amount of military training to cultivate students’ awareness of rules." Yin Zhangwei, director of the Academic Affairs Office of Guangzhou Xinsui School, told the reporter that at present, the school vigorously promotes the construction of school-based courses such as aesthetic education courses and mental health courses, and makes students consciously correct their mistakes through the internalization of educational concepts. After the implementation of these teaching methods, some students are promoted to key high schools and universities.
Graded intervention to correct the abnormal behavior of minors is an important concept of the new law on the prevention of juvenile delinquency. Guangzhou City is exploring the construction of different types of specialized schools for the three different education and correction objects: minors with general or serious bad behaviors, minors involved in crimes who are conditionally not prosecuted or exempted from prosecution, and juvenile offenders who are serving sentences.
Behind the "problem children" are social problems. The relevant person in charge of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said that the procuratorial organs should strengthen the analysis of the causes, laws and trends of cases in handling cases, and cooperate with families, schools and society to solve the deep-seated social problems behind cases involving minors, so as to prevent minors from committing crimes more effectively. (Reporter Bai Yang, Xu Zhuang, Liu Yuzhan, Yan Zhihong, Wang Ying, Wu Shuaishuai, Yang Shuxin)