Parental guardianship terminated in 18 cases of child sex assault: ministry

Regulators said that parental guardianship has been terminated due to sexual assault of children in 18 cases so far, after two recent incidents of sexual harassment of children triggered nationwide outrage toward pedophiles.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said that based on incomplete statistics, the 18 cases account for almost 30 percent of all child sexual assault cases in China by now, the Legal Daily reported on Wednesday.

A Chinese writer named Chen Lan posted some photos on her Sina Weibo account on August 12, which showed a young man putting his hands on his adopted younger sister’s breasts while their parents were sitting next to them at a railway station in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu Province.

The young man, surnamed Duan, was arrested on Monday in Central China’s Henan Province and the case is under investigation.

In another case in Shapingba district of Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, a little girl’s uncle put his hands inside her underwear in a local hospital. The man was arrested on Wednesday, said a Sina Weibo post by Shapingba police.

The two cases have provoked a nationwide outrage toward pedophiles, especially those who sexually harassed their family member’s children, with most people calling for harsher punishment on the criminals.

An astonishing fact is that family members are also culprits in children’s rape, sexual assault and molestation, with 10 percent of the 433 child sexual assault crimes which were reported in 2016 committed by family members or relatives, the Legal Daily reported.

Wang Xingjuan, a psychologist at the Maple Women’s Psychological Counseling Center in Beijing, said that sex- related education should be promoted in primary and middle schools especially in rural areas to enhance children’s awareness about self- protection.

And relevant laws should be formulated to severely punish the criminals, said Wang, add- ing that there are no laws related to child sexual harassment but merely guiding opinions formulated in 2014.

Wang added that cases of child sexual harassment and assault usually occur within the family, schools and social communities and 70 percent of such crimes are committed by the victims’ acquaintances.

Regulators, including the Ministry of Public Security jointly formulated the opinions on protecting the rights and interests of minors in December 2014, the Legal Daily reported.