【Protection of Minors】Interpretation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors

The Law on the Protection of Minors is an important law enacted in accordance with the Constitution to protect the physical and mental health of minors, protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors, promote the all-round development of minors' morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics and labor, and cultivate new people of the era who will take on the great task of national rejuvenation. The Law on the Protection of Minors was enacted in 1991, amended for the first time in 2006, amended and adopted for the second time on October 17, 2020 by the 22nd Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress, and will come into force on June 1, 2021. The Law on the Protection of Minors is divided into General Provisions, Family Protection, School Protection, Social Protection, Internet Protection, Government Protection, Judicial Protection, Legal Liability, and Supplementary Provisions, with a total of 9 chapters and 132 articles. The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors has enriched a large number of contents, clarified many specific systems, and increased the number of articles from 72 to 132, and the original Law on the Protection of Minors was structured as "family protection, school protection, social protection, and judicial protection", and now has added special chapters on "Internet Protection", "Government Protection" and "Legal Responsibility" to respond to issues of minors such as poor guardianship by guardians, student bullying, sexual assault, and Internet addiction. The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors directly clarifies the duties of "civil affairs departments" in 8 articles and 15 places, focusing on the requirements for civil affairs departments to perform their statutory duties of state guardianship, carry out supervision and guidance of family guardianship, accept cases of infringement of minors' rights and interests, and carry out rescue and protection, and 38 articles and 40 places directly related to civil affairs operations, focusing on regulating the duties of social organizations, village (neighborhood) committees, child welfare institutions, and institutions for the aid and protection of minors.

Interpretation 1: Increase operability and strengthen legal responsibility (legal liability)

The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors further strengthens legal liability, and violations of the relevant provisions of the Law on the Protection of Minors will be punished accordingly. Only by increasing legal responsibility can the Law on the Protection of Minors have a deterrent effect and can it truly shoulder the responsibility of protecting minors. The part on legal responsibility for violations and crimes stipulates various ways of pursuing responsibility, including for parents, adding that the public security organs can require parents to receive family education, including the punishment of relevant personnel of some school organs, and also stipulating that relevant enterprises can be fined, including the revocation of licenses in serious cases.

Interpretation 2: The rights and interests of minors are violated, and a mandatory reporting system (work system) is added

The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors adds a mandatory reporting system when the rights and interests of minors are discovered, and an access qualification system for employees in industries with close contact with minors, which will play an important role in preventing violations of minors. The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that where state organs, residents' committees, villagers' committees, units with close contact with minors, and their staffs, discover that minors' physical or mental health has been violated, suspected to have been violated, or that they are facing other dangerous situations, they shall immediately report to the relevant departments such as for public security, civil affairs, and education. Where failure to perform reporting obligations causes serious consequences, the competent department at the level above or the unit to which they belong is to give sanctions to the directly responsible managers and other directly responsible personnel in accordance with law. From the subject, from the content of the report, including legal responsibilities are clarified. The increase in the mandatory reporting system can be said to be an important system for early detection and early intervention of harm suffered by minors. In recent years, the problem of sexual assault, abuse, and violence against minors has occurred from time to time among employees in industries with close contact with minors, and unlike other crimes, the recidivism rate of illegal and criminal acts against minors is high, and the use of professional convenience to carry out is more hidden. The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that the State shall establish an information inquiry system for persons who have violated the law and committed crimes such as sexual assault, abuse, trafficking, and violent harm, and provide free inquiry services to units that have close contact with minors. When units with close contact with minors recruit staff, they shall inquire with the public security organs and people's procuratorates whether the applicants have a record of sexual assault, abuse, trafficking, violent harm, or other violations or crimes; Units that have close contact with minors shall periodically conduct annual inquiries into whether staff members have the illegal or criminal records described above. Where it is discovered through inquiries or other means that their staff members have the conduct described above, they shall be promptly dismissed.

Interpretation 3: Schools should establish a system for the prevention and control of student bullying and campus sexual assault (work system)

In recent years, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors defines student bullying for the first time, and clearly stipulates that schools should establish a prevention, control and handling mechanism to prevent and control student bullying and campus sexual assault. The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors clarifies that student bullying refers to the behavior of one party deliberately or maliciously bullying or insulting students through physical, verbal, online and other means, causing personal injury, property damage or mental damage to the other party. Schools shall establish work systems for the prevention and control of student bullying, and carry out education and training on the prevention and control of student bullying for faculty, staff, students, and so forth. Schools shall immediately stop students' bullying conduct, notify the parents or other guardians of the minor students who have been bullied and the minor students who have been bullied to participate in the identification and handling of the bullying conduct; Schools shall strengthen discipline of minor students who carry out bullying in accordance with law based on the nature and extent of the bullying conduct. Schools must not conceal serious bullying conduct, and shall promptly report it to the public security organs and administrative departments for education, and cooperate with the relevant departments to handle it in accordance with law. For example, in the section on the protection of minors, it is clearly stipulated that schools should establish such a system for the prevention and control of sexual assault of minors, and that schools should first have such a system, and secondly, after discovering such cases, schools should promptly report to the public security organs, and it also stipulates that schools should carry out sex education similar to the age of minors, with the aim of improving minors' ability to protect themselves.

Interpretation 4: Strengthen family protection and refine family guardianship responsibilities (family protection)

Family protection is essential to the healthy growth of minors, and the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors clearly lists the guardianship duties that minors' parents or other guardians should perform and the acts that they must not perform. In addition, in response to the lack of guardianship of left-behind children and other groups in rural areas, the entrusted care system has been improved. In the section on the protection of minors, the Law on the Protection of Minors first specifies what parents can do, what parents should do, and what parents should do? Parents should take care of their children's safety and life, including paying attention to their physical and psychological health, and also managing their property. A total of 10 specific guardianship systems are listed, and 11 acts that parents or other guardians are not allowed to engage in. In response to the lack of guardianship of left-behind children and other groups in rural areas, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors has improved the entrusted care system. Under what circumstances can you take care of you, that is, there must be a valid reason, such as when your parents go out to work, and there is really no way. If there is no legitimate reason, you cannot casually entrust the child to someone else to take care of it. It also stipulates who cannot be delegated, and also stipulates the issues that the client should pay special attention to from the perspective of parents, and also stipulates the social protection part, and also stipulates the neighborhood committees of village committees, which should assist the local government in supervising the entrusted persons. The newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors clarifies the state guardianship system, stipulating that when the guardian of a minor is unable to perform his or her guardianship duties, the state shall assume the guardianship duties. In some cases where the parents cannot be found for a while, including if the parents abuse the child, and the child needs to be temporarily taken into custody and placed, the civil affairs department should assume the responsibility of temporary guardianship on behalf of the government.

Interpretation 5: "Hearing the opinions of minors" as a principle of protection (family protection)

Paragraph 5 of Article 4 of the Law clearly stipulates that "hearing the opinions of minors" is one of the principles for handling matters involving minors. This principle is the implementation of maximizing the rights and interests of minors, which is embodied in the following situations: (1) before the guardian makes a decision related to the rights and interests of the minor (Article 19), (2) before the guardian determines the person to be entrusted (Article 22), (3) when the minor's parents divorce, before handling matters such as the upbringing, education, visitation, and property of the minor child (Article 24), and (4) when the public security organs, people's procuratorates, people's courts, and judicial administrative departments handle cases involving minors (Article 102).

Interpretation 6: Protection of minors' privacy and personal information (social protection)

Paragraph 3 of Article 4 of the Law on the Protection of Minors regards "protection of minors' privacy and personal information" as one of the principles for handling matters involving minors, which is an undertaking of the right to privacy and emphasis on personal information in the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China. First, the news media shall strengthen publicity on the protection of minors, and conduct public opinion supervision of conduct that violates the lawful rights and interests of minors. News media's coverage and reporting of incidents involving minors shall be objective, prudent, and proportionate, and must not infringe upon minors' reputation, privacy, or other lawful rights and interests (article 49). Second, where information handlers process minors' personal information online, they shall follow the principles of legality, legitimacy, and necessity (Article 72). Third, where the personal information of minors under the age of 14 is handled, the consent of the minors' parents or other guardians shall be obtained (article 72). Fourth, where minors, parents, or other guardians request that information handlers correct or delete minors' personal information, the information handlers shall promptly employ measures to correct or delete it (article 72). Fifth, where network service providers discover that minors have published private information online, they shall promptly give a reminder and employ necessary protective measures (article 73). Sixth, public security organs, people's procuratorates, and people's courts should protect minors' right to reputation, privacy, and other lawful rights and interests in the course of handling cases (article 110).

Interpretation 7: All-round prevention of minors from being harmed and harassed by violations and crimes (work system)

The first is to require schools, kindergartens, infant and child care service establishments, early education service establishments, off-campus training establishments, off-campus childcare establishments, and so forth, to establish work systems for the prevention of sexual assault and sexual harassment of minors, to carry out sex education appropriate to their age, and to increase minors' awareness and ability to protect themselves from sexual assault and harassment (articles 40 and 41). Second, at the same time, the Law also adds a new access qualification system for industry employees who have close contact with minors, so as to prevent illegal and criminal offenders who have committed violations from entering relevant industries and fields at the source (Article 62). Third, the state is to establish a system for inquiring into information on persons who have violated the law or committed crimes such as sexual assault, abuse, trafficking, or violent harm, and provides free inquiry services to units that have close contact with minors (article 98).

Interpretation 8: All-round prevention of minors from being harmed and harassed by violations and crimes (work system)

In order to promote the continuous purification of cyberspace and protect the physical and psychological health of minors, the rational use of the internet. Chapter 5 "Cyber Protection" has been added, with a total of 17 articles. The first is to clarify the obligations of the state, society, schools, and families to pay attention to the improvement of minors' online literacy and protect their lawful rights and interests in cyberspace. The state encourages and supports the creation and dissemination of online content that is conducive to the healthy growth of minors, and lawfully punishes the use of the internet to engage in activities that endanger minors' physical and psychological health (articles 64-66). Second, network service providers should restrict minors' access to the Internet, their authority, and the amount of money they can tip. The third is to establish a system for categorization, identity authentication, and age-appropriate reminders for online game products (Article 75). Fourth, minors under the age of 16 must not provide online live streaming, and minors over the age of 16 should obtain the consent of their guardians before providing online live streaming (article 76).

Interpretation 9: Strengthen government protections for minors and clarify government protection obligations

In order to implement the government's obligations in the protection of minors, strengthen the role of the government, and reflect the determination to protect the rights and interests of minors. Chapter VI "Government Protection" has been added, with a total of 19 articles. The first is that specialized institutions or specialized personnel are responsible for undertaking work on the protection of minors (Article 81); the second is to include family education guidance services in the urban and rural public service system, to protect minors' right to education, and to develop childcare, preschool education, and vocational education (Articles 82, 83, 84, 85, and 86); and (3) to ensure campus safety and maintain public security and traffic order around campuses in accordance with law (Article 87, Fourth, establish and improve activity venues and facilities suitable for minors, provide health care and nutrition guidance to minors, and provide health care services (Articles 89, 90, and 91); Article 95), sixth, people's governments at the county level or above should open a unified national hotline for the protection of minors (article 97), and seventh, the state establishes an information inquiry system for persons who violate the law and commit crimes such as sexual assault, abuse, trafficking, and violent harm (article 98).

Source: Shuangyashan Civil Affairs Bureau

Research one