'HK Should Set Up Central Database On Child Abuse'

The chairwoman of the Hong Kong Committee on Children's Rights, Priscilla Lui, has called on the government to set up a centralised database on child abuse cases, to better coordinate responses taken to help victims.

A recent spate of high-profile cases has cast a spotlight on whether Hong Kong is doing enough to prevent and identify child abuse, and how suspected cases may fall through the cracks.

Currently, the police, the Social Welfare Department and public hospitals keep different databases of suspected cases of abuse.

But Mrs Lui said this lack of coordination is not ideal. "They keep their own data in their own way. It's difficult to compare," she said.

"If personnel have identified suspected child abuse cases, it certainly deserves to be seriously looked into how those cases have been handled, how the cases have been defined. Whether they are physical abuse, neglect, psychological abuse or sexual abuse needs to be spelled out, in order to trace the profile and characteristics, to know whether the follow-up actions have been adequate."