According to the Science and Technology Daily, the revised draft of the Law on the Protection of Minors is expected to be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation in October this year. "This revision of the Law on the Protection of Minors is a major revision, doubling the number of articles, and campus bullying and other issues are reflected in it," said Liu Xinhua, deputy director of the Social Affairs Office of the Social Construction Committee of the National People's Congress. At the same time, the National People's Congress will also study and revise the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, which will be carried out simultaneously with the revision of the Law on the Protection of Juveniles.

The overhaul of the Juvenile Protection Law can be said to be expected. In recent years, the incidents of minors being injured have repeatedly made headlines in the media, causing public controversy. At the same time, the discussion on judicial protection of minors has become increasingly extensive and in-depth.

In the study of juvenile delinquency, someone even found that some juvenile delinquents explicitly said: "You should do a lot of work before the age of 14, and you can do it before the age of 16, but you should stop after the age of 16." Some extreme cases make people question: is the judicial protection of minors to protect minors or minors who commit crimes? Therefore, the voice of lowering the age of criminal responsibility is growing. But can lowering the age of criminal responsibility really solve the problem?

On the other hand, the vicious events of campus bullying also emerge in endlessly. In 2017, a student of Beijing Yanqing No. 2 Middle School was forced to pick up food and feces in the toilet, and had to plead: "Please forgive me." Not long ago, a junior high school girl in Qinghe County, Hebei Province was beaten several times by seven classmates in less than 10 days, which was identified as minor injury grade II, and the hit students were all under 14 years old. A female student in Yunnan was beaten by her classmates in the school dormitory. She climbed onto the washstand and opened the window to escape from falling down accidentally, causing Grade 9 disability... There are numerous similar incidents.

Juvenile crime and campus bullying point to the lack of protection for minors.

No one is a criminal at birth. In his life, for the first time, did Xiaomo get proper education? Has the first use of violence been stopped in time? Does he have the opportunity to learn social rules and fraternity? These are supposed to be given to every child by the society, family and school. However, in almost all juvenile crimes, we can see the lack of some aspect, even the all-round "collapse". The protection of minors should not be limited to ensuring their survival and safety. Proper education and prevention of criminal acts are also the proper meaning of "protection".

Previously, the legal profession generally believed that the provisions of the Law on the Protection of Minors were relatively crude, and that some principled provisions were mainly made for the protection of minors, which was not very operational. For example, if campus bullying does not cause serious physical harm, it is almost impossible to punish the perpetrators, nor to protect the victims. Even schools and society do not think this is a problem. If "minor evils" are not eliminated, they will develop into "major evils". When crimes such as intentional killing occur, it will be too late to "sacrifice" the criminal law.

Therefore, in recent years, all relevant departments are exploring measures to truly protect minors and curb juvenile delinquency. For example, the Supreme People's Procuratorate proposed to explore the establishment of systems such as critical education, family education, graded treatment and protective punishment for delinquent minors. Eleven departments, including the Ministry of Education, jointly issued the Program for Strengthening the Comprehensive Treatment of Bullying in Primary and Secondary Schools, which clearly defined student bullying, standardized the handling procedures, and defined the disciplinary measures for student bullying in different situations. These are all useful exploration and practical measures.

In this context, it is logical and imperative to systemically sort out and stipulate the protection measures for minors from a legal perspective. It is expected that this overhaul of the law can improve the legal protection system for minors, fill legal gaps, respond to the focus of social concerns, create a good legal environment for the healthy development of minors, and create a good legal environment for the stability and unity of the whole society.

Source of soil velvet: China Youth Daily

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