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Illustration: Henry Wong

Time for Hong Kong to do some soul-searching on its rising child abuse cases? We look at legal loopholes, Covid’s role and deep-rooted problems

  • Series of recent child abuse cases, including death of five-year-old boy found with bruises on his body, have shocked the public
  • Incidents increased by 5 per cent during first six months of 2022 compared with same period last year, according to official figures

When Siuping*, 45, hit her 11-year-old son, causing a scratch on the back of his neck, something in her had snapped from the weight of having to look after the boy with special needs alone for years while struggling to make ends meet in Hong Kong.

A social worker noticed the child’s injury and reported it to police, landing his mother a one-year probation order from the court late last year for physical abuse.

Siuping said her actions were caused by her unhappiness at her son’s growing addiction to online games during the Covid-19 pandemic. He had stayed up all night gaming, ignoring her calls to stop.

“I regretted it and felt heartbroken immediately after I hit him,” she said. “But it has been so hard for me – I have been bearing all the hardships alone, struggling economically, isolated from society, and my son did not listen.

“All these negative emotions just exploded at once.”

Child abuse cases, a worrying trend on the rise in Hong Kong, have sparked a debate on loopholes in legislation that may have led to the under-reporting of cases. The situation has also shed light on the effects of the pandemic, leading to calls for soul-searching over deep-rooted, socio-economic issues plaguing families.

The city was shocked recently by the death of a five-year-old boy who was found with abrasions on his body. His pregnant mother, who was arrested after rescuers dramatically thwarted her suicide bid, was charged with murder earlier this month.

Hong Kong mum charged with murder, aunt arrested after boy dies

The Child Protection Registry of the Social Welfare Department recorded a total of 689 new child abuse cases during the first six months of 2022, up 5 per cent from 657 in the same period last year, and some 80 per cent more than the 383 over the same time frame in 2020.

Physical abuse figured in 309 of this year’s cases, followed by sexual abuse (224), neglect (132), multiple abuse (15) and psychological abuse (nine).

About three in five victims were girls. More than half of the abusers were parents, and others included schoolmates, friends, peers, strangers and carers.

A total of 1,367 cases were recorded over the whole of last year, and 940 in 2020.

Experts and social workers said an enhanced safety net partly contributed to more abuse reports, but they blamed loopholes in the city’s existing child protection mechanism which left many cases unrecorded, increasingly complicated family formations, limited government support as well as deep-seated issues such as the widening wealth gap and poor living conditions.

The coronavirus pandemic had also played a role, with social-distancing rules, school closures and an economic slump leading to mounting pressures on families and more conflict at home, they said.

Originally from Guangdong province in mainland China, Siuping came to Hong Kong in 2015 with her son, who was born in the city and has permanent residence status. The two live in an 80 sq ft subdivided unit in Sham Shui Po, paying a monthly rent of HK$4,000 (US$510).

Without a Hong Kong identity card and staying on a visa, Siuping is not allowed to work. The pair survive on her son’s monthly Comprehensive Social Security Assistance allowance of about HK$5,800, as well as cash borrowed from families and friends, with no help from her Hongkonger husband, with whom she had separated.

Siuping faces mounting pressure as the sole caretaker of her 11-year-old son. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Her son was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia in 2015, and has difficulties sitting still and controlling his body. He loses his temper easily.

Siuping said the pandemic had made things even worse, with her son deprived of regular activities and face-to-face therapy sessions at school and confined to their tiny home. He grew addicted to internet games, and spent more than 10 hours a day playing them, including during his online classes.

“I felt so tired, stressed and helpless,” she said, adding she now reported to her probation officer once a month. She restricted her son’s game time, and his condition improved mildly, but she said she needed more help.

Priscilla Lui Tsang Sun-kai, a non-official member of the Commission on Children, an advisory body set up by the government in 2018, warned: “The rising trend of child abuse in Hong Kong is worrying. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, as behind each recorded case, there are 99 others unreported.

Priscilla Lui, a non-official member of the Commission on Children. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

“There have been deep-seated problems, and new issues have emerged due to the pandemic – all these have led to where we are.”

City in shock

Hong Kong has seen successive and disturbing child abuse cases, which have triggered a public outcry, with many questioning why the city had failed young victims despite repeated calls for more protection.

The case of the five-year-old boy occurred on September 3, when police arrived at the family’s subdivided home in Sham Shui Po to find the child unconscious and covered in bruises and abrasions. He was later certified dead in hospital. The boy’s mother had called in authorities.

Police arrested the mother, 33, who was later charged with murder. The boy’s aunt, 40, was also held on suspicion of child neglect.

Hong Kong mother of dead boy, 5, remanded in jail

According to police, the boy’s development was delayed, which might have led to problems with his temper, while the pandemic, which had forced him to stay at home, could have caused or worsened the situation.

Months earlier, a wider child abuse scandal emerged in December, leading to police arresting 34 staff members of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children for allegedly abusing 40 toddlers at the group’s Children’s Residential Home. The employees were accused of yanking the children’s hair, hitting them on the head, slapping their faces and tossing them to the floor.

Child abuse review calls for more surprise checks at Hong Kong care centres

Separately in April last year, a father and stepmother were sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering their five-year-old daughter in 2018. The girl died of septicaemia – blood poisoning – and was found with more than 130 injuries covering her body, including festering wounds.

Karen Yiu Kit-ling, chief officer of children and youth service at the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), said the rising number of recorded abuse cases in recent years was partly the result of a “more densely woven” safety net with improved capacity for early identification of abuse.

The government has sent social workers to primary and secondary schools as well as kindergartens, which helped detect abuse cases, Yiu said, while hospitals now conducted urine tests on newborn babies to find out if their mothers took drugs – which could pose high risks of child abuse.

But she warned that the net was still not wide enough, especially for children under the age of three who did not go for classes, meaning many other abuse cases could be unreported.

Karen Yiu, chief officer of children and youth service at the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS). Photo: Xiaomei Chen

On August 13, police arrested two people on suspicion of murder after a three-month-old boy died with bruises and blisters on his body. The force said the baby’s biological mother, who had financial difficulties, had entrusted the couple to take care of the infant.

Patrick Ip Pak-keung, clinical associate professor of the department of paediatrics and adolescent medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), said under the current child protection system, only cases involving serious abuse, including obvious physical injuries or sexual acts, were reported and made it to the government’s Child Protection Registry. Such cases were followed up on by social workers who made regular evaluations of the children’s conditions and assessed risks.

But many less serious cases were dismissed at an early stage, while some were unreported, he said, especially those involving psychological abuse and neglect which were not easily spotted.

The result was an underestimated situation of child abuse in Hong Kong, with many incidents not reflected in the database and early intervention missed.

“Mostly only those serious abuse cases involving deaths or severe physical injuries will gain attention from society and the authorities,” said Ip, who is also a non-official member of the Commission on Children. “This is not ideal.”

First of 27 defendants in Hong Kong child abuse scandal gets 4 months’ jail

Jessica Ling Yuen-kwan, in charge of the parent support network unit under the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, said increasingly complicated family formations also contributed to the rising abuse cases, as problems arose more easily in households with single parents or so-called pseudo single parents – with absentee partners due to work or migration, remarried couples, as well as unions between Hongkongers and mainlanders.

“These parents are more susceptible to emotional problems, which can lead to strained parent-child relations and conflict, and child abuse in some serious cases,” she said.

But fundamentally, HKCSS’ Yiu blamed the city’s widening wealth disparity and the poor living conditions of low-income families. Long working hours, among the world’s most extreme, as well as significant academic pressure made it difficult for parents and children to build good relations.

“These are all risk factors which can lead to tension between parents and children,” she said.

Covid-19, special needs make children vulnerable

Aside from the deep-seated issues, the coronavirus pandemic had made things worse, experts said.

Ling explained the pandemic had led to job and financial losses for low-income parents, while school closures and social-distancing measures confined children at home for a prolonged period of time. All these factors resulted in mounting stress and more conflict at home.

Among the most vulnerable to abuse are children from single-parent and poor households, including those surviving on the government’s welfare allowances and living in tiny subdivided spaces, as well as youngsters with special educational needs (SEN), according to experts.

Statistics from the Education Bureau show there were 58,890 SEN students in the public sector’s ordinary schools in the 2021-22 academic year, up from 56,640 in 2020-21, 53,180 for 2019-20, and 49,080 in 2018-19.

Among the 2021-22 figures, 24,040 had specific learning difficulties, followed by 14,830 with ADHD, 12,390 with autism spectrum disorder, and 3,950 involving speech and language impairment. Others also included those with intellectual disability, mental illness, hearing impairment, physical disability and visual impairment.

There are other students who attend schools for special education, with 8,379 in 2021-22, up from 8,290 in 2020-21, 8,270 in 2019-20, and 8,008 in 2018-2019.

Wendy Huang Wen-jie, a community organiser of NGO Society for Community Organisation (SoCO), said parents faced tremendous stress looking after SEN children, whose behavioural and emotional problems could be tough to handle, especially amid pandemic-related school closures.

A SoCO survey conducted between June and September last year of 311 such parents found about six in seven had insomnia during the month before the survey, and more than one in seven had suicidal thoughts.

About 95 per cent of those surveyed said their mental stress mostly came from problems with children.

“Children with SEN are particularly vulnerable, and their carers face huge pressure,” Huang said. “But the support for them is too limited to meet their needs.”

Supporting special educational needs (SEN) students

She added that the government had increased services for preschool children diagnosed with SEN in recent years, including subsidised rehabilitation services, allowances for them to seek non-subsidised services while waiting for the former, as well as on-site services in kindergartens.

But she said support for primary and secondary school pupils remained too limited. Huang noted authorities gave subsidies for schools to provide services for students with special needs, but did not set up specific rules on how these should be offered.

Schools enjoyed flexibility, but the result was that support at different institutions varied, with some spending the money on recruiting non-professionals, while others on improving facilities, she said.

Huang said almost all parents of SEN students complained about a lack of school services for their children. She urged the government to provide more support for schools as well as NGOs to offer tailor-made services for pupils with different needs, and also give allowances for individuals to seek other non-subsidised sessions, which cost HK$200 to HK$800 for 45 minutes.

‘Not about firefighting’

With the rising abuse cases, experts and social workers have called for more support to protect children from harm.

HKU’s Ip said the Comprehensive Child Development Service, launched by the government in 2005 for early identification of children and families with special needs and providing support, was effective and helpful in lowering abuse risks for children, but there was a bottleneck with no new resources including money, manpower and training.

Ip urged authorities to review and improve the service, including adding manpower and offering more resources on intervention services, to keep up with the rising number of children and families in need, especially those with parents suffering from mental health problems and substance abuse.

Patrick Ip, clinical associate professor of the department of paediatrics and adolescent medicine at HKU. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

He added that the Commission on Children would carry out a new consultancy study to review its effectiveness and areas for improvement.

He also urged authorities to focus on lowering risks and abuse prevention, stepping up education on positive parenting for parents, and providing support for them to build a safe, child-friendly home environment.

“Our current child protection system runs in the model of ‘firefighting’. But there should not be fire in the first place,” he said.

Following the death of the five-year-old boy, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu pledged to speed up work on a bill that would make it mandatory for childcare professionals to report suspected abuse of a minor. The government previously said it hoped to introduce the bill in the Legislative Council next year.

Hong Kong to speed up work on bill covering suspected child abuse, leader says

Experts welcomed the bill, but urged authorities to accelerate the process and ensure enough manpower and training to cope with the expected increase in reported cases with the law in force.

Hong Kong’s legislation to protect children include the Offences against the Person Ordinance, the Crimes Ordinance, the Prevention of Child Pornography Ordinance, and the Protection of Children and Juveniles Ordinance.

Lui, a former director of NGO Against Child Abuse, called on authorities to carry out a comprehensive review of the ordinances and make improvements, including adding a new offence of “failure to protect a child or vulnerable person where the child’s or vulnerable person’s death or serious harm results from an unlawful act or neglect”, recommended by the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong in September last year.

The proposed crime would impose liability on bystanders, rather than mere punishment of the perpetrator.

A look at how Hong Kong is handling legislation on child abuse

Hong Kong has a non-statutory child fatality review panel formed by professionals from different disciplines to examine the statistics of child deaths, and make recommendations on preventive measures.

But Lui said the panel only looked at the overall figures and trends, and called on the government to instead establish a mechanism to thoroughly study individual cases and find out their causes to prevent such incidents from happening again.

On a broader level, Lui urged the government to always include a child’s perspective in its policies and assess their impact on children.

“The problem cannot be solved by a single bill. We need a basket of measures as well as the will and determination to protect our children from harm,” she said.

*Name changed at interviewee’s request.

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