With tomorrow being International Children’s Day, a cause for celebration is the passing last week of amendments to the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法), aimed toward increasing penalties and reinforcing mechanisms to prevent abuse and exploitations of minors.
This is important, as Taiwan does not have a public sexual offender registry that parents can check via the Internet, and it depends on childcare centers or schools to weed out possible predators among their employees.
It is encouraging to see the government seriously ramping up regulations in response to problems that have persisted in society instead of just continuously increasing fines, which do not seem to deter repeat offenders.
For example, not only did the government increase the fines for drunk driving last week, it also proposed possible mandatory ignition interlock devices for repeat offenders and the death penalty for cases that involve fatalities.
Like drunk driving, the number of abuse of minor cases, sexual or not, have remained high, especially in care centers, schools and after-school programs. It would really be best if the government simply provided a searchable public sexual offender or child abuser registry — US laws go as far as requiring child sexual offenders to reveal their past crimes on their passports — but that does not appear likely to happen anytime soon in Taiwan, where schools and child-related organizations have had to apply to check the registry when hiring new staff or volunteers.
Fortunately, this is no longer the case under the new rules, as institutes must log into a database of sexual offenders and child abusers established by the government to verify whether that person has been convicted.
Those who do not do so face a fine of up to NT$250,000. This is a very important step as businesses will no longer be able to get away with negligence.
It also makes a great deal of sense — where else would a pedophile likely apply for a job? It is outrageous that this was not a requirement before.
The other major amendment is the simplification of procedures for judicial intervention. In the past, prosecutors could only intervene in suspected child abuse cases after evidence was presented by a social worker, but under the new rules, prosecutors will be able to intervene whenever social workers at local governments file a report about a child or teenager being in potential danger.
Law enforcement is more experienced and better equipped in gathering evidence and handling criminal cases, and the earlier they become involved the better.
There is no need to take any risks when it comes to children who cannot fend or speak for themselves.
A crucial part is when families or institutions refuse to cooperate despite reasonable suspicion that a minor is in danger. A social worker can now ask police to force their way in, if necessary, and search for evidence and detain suspects for prosecution.
Requiring childcare centers to install cameras is also a positive move, but that can be subject to tampering, as the institution is still in charge of monitoring their employees’ behavior.
Another important article is keeping secret the identity of the person who reported child abuse, as many people might keep quiet for fear of retribution or causing trouble within their community or workplace.
Overall, this is a great improvement for child welfare — hopefully it will be enforced properly — an auspicious start to marking International Children’s Day this year.
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