Time to act on stalled proposal toughening child abuse penalties, lawmakers say

Hong Kong authorities have been urged to toughen penalties for child abuse as a proposal to review protection laws for minors, which were last updated in 1995, has remained stalled for seven years.A check by the South China Morning Post found that over more than 20 years, only one of 13 serious child abuse cases involving ill-treatment or neglect of a child or young person resulted in a jail term close to the maximum of 10 years.Lawmakers earlier this month called for increasing the 10-year maximum penalty for child abuse and neglect offences as they passed a non-binding motion on moving forward to “holistically review and enhance legislation relating to child protection”.The maximum penalty for such offences was last increased from two years in 1995.The SCMP looked at 13 judgments reached in the most serious child abuse and neglect cases between 1999 and last year, and found that only one adopted a starting point of nine years and six months’ imprisonment, while some resulted in sentences of about two years.Three cases resulted in 10-year jail terms, but they also involved manslaughter charges.Judges in several cases noted the court primarily needed to protect the vulnerable and deter would-be abusers.However, one judge noted an appellate court had not set out any sentencing tariff, saying the circumstances of different cases varied.A 2017 High Court case the SCMP examined involved a seven-year-old girl who was repeatedly assaulted by her stepmother, causing her to suffer irreversible brain damage and remain in a vegetative state.At the trial, presiding judge Mr Justice Kevin Zervos said he noted that for some cases resulting in the death of a victim, a manslaughter charge could be laid against the offender.But he said that for a case where the victim was still alive but had suffered permanent injury, the maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment needed to be reviewed.Further Reading“This punishment does not fit the serious levels of this crime,” he said.Zervos handed the stepmother nine years and six months in jail, while the father was sentenced to four years and six months for a separate offence of perverting the course of justice.In 2019, the Law Reform Commission’s Causing or Allowing the Death of a Child or Vulnerable Adult Sub-committee published a consultation paper and a report two years later, recommending a stiffer sentence for child abuse offenders.It suggested raising the maximum penalty to 20 years’ imprisonment in cases where the victim died and to 15 years if victims suffered permanent and serious harm.At the Legislative Council meeting on April 1 and 2, lawmakers noted that the committee’s report has since been brushed aside, even as the number of child abuse and neglect reports logged by the Social Welfare Department rose from 940 in 2020 to 1,144 in 2025.Legislator Nixie Lam Lam said Legco members agreed that a comprehensive review of the penalty for child abuse was needed.“Most members agreed that the current sentence does not quite have a deterrent effect,” she said. “So should we begin from there?”To push for a higher penalty, lawmakers would have to start a “long-term” discussion with authorities, she said.She added that the Department of Justice would have to focus on reviewing all child-related provisions in existing legislation to identify gaps, including the dividing line for the age of children as it varied from 12 to 16 in different provisions.Billy Wong Wai-yuk, executive secretary of the Hong Kong Committee on Children’s Rights, said the government’s “mindset” was to improve child protection laws “case by case” instead of speeding up legal reforms.She noted the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance enacted in January encompassed more aspects of child protection and aimed to raise public awareness.Hong Kong is 20 to 30 years behind other jurisdictions that have a more comprehensive law on child protection, advocate Billy Wong says. Photo: Getty ImagesThe new law requires 25 professions in the social welfare, education and medical sectors to report suspected maltreatment of minors or face penalties of up to three months in jail and a fine of HK$50,000 (US$6,410).“Even with the implementation of the [new law], Hong Kong is still 20 to 30 years behind other jurisdictions that have a more comprehensive law on child protection,” she said.Wong added that some child abuse offenders were only convicted of other offences, such as common assault, instead of ones that specifically aimed to protect children.“It fails to send a clear message to the public that children are vulnerable people, causing a failure to bring justice,” she said.Just last month, Kowloon City Court heard a sentencing review of a 49-year-old immigration officer who originally received 200 hours of community service for six counts of common assault. He had choked his wife and young son during domestic disputes between 2021 and 2025.The presiding magistrate accepted the defence’s pleading and changed the penalty to one year of probation after hearing that performing community service would result in the officer losing his job and collaterally affecting the victims.Lawmaker Lam questioned the sentence’s effect.“Does the sentence have a deterrent effect on offenders with such behavioural issues?” she asked.She added that a higher penalty could hopefully deter repeat offenders.