A total of 66 suspected serious child abuse reports involving 70 children were received by the government by the end of February, following the implementation of Hong Kong’s mandatory reporting law, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said.
The Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance came into force on Jan 20.
Speaking to the press on Friday, Sun said most of the reports received so far involved physical abuse. He added that the largest number of reports came from the social welfare sector, though cases were also reported by medical professionals and teachers.
Sun described the number of reports as “moderate.”
He said the government had originally expected a sharp rise in reports immediately after the law took effect, but that had not happened so far.
Sun said he believed the smoother-than-expected rollout was due to extensive preparatory work carried out by the government before the ordinance came into force, which helped professionals clearly understand the relevant procedures and allowed the mechanism to be implemented in a stable manner.
He added that the government will compile child abuse figures on a quarterly basis and conduct more detailed analysis of the data.
