Hong Kong’s plan to make reporting suspected child abuse mandatory could do more harm than good, survivors say
HKFP
Hong Kong’s plan to make reporting suspected child abuse mandatory could do more harm than good, survivors say
Four survivors of child sexual abuse said they would rather live with their abuse than tell someone if that person were obligated to report it to the police.
As Hong Kong authorities plan legislation to make reporting suspected cases of child abuse compulsory, survivors of childhood sexual assault have voiced concerns that the well-intended move might create more trauma.
Under the proposed law, people who come into frequent contact with children under the age of 18 through their jobs will be legally obliged to report any suspected cases of child abuse to authorities.
A number of recent cases of child abuse in child care centres and schools across the city has renewed calls for the legislation, with the proposal largely supported by lawmakers and the public. But among survivors of such abuse, the planned inclusion of child sexual abuse set alarm bells ringing.
RainLily, a group that has provided support and counselling services for sexual abuse survivors for more than two decades, said it hoped to give voice to those who had experienced such abuse.
Among the 107 cases of underage sexual assault RainLily has assisted over the past three years, 40 per cent did not go to the police, according to a press release the group sent out last Thursday.
Last Saturday, RainLily invited four members of its childhood sexual abuse survivor group to sit down with reporters, to explain why they did not want to immediately go to the authorities, and share the scars left by legal proceedings they had not wanted to be a part of.