Progress made in war on child sex abuse

Difficult to detect

Sexual violence committed by family members is often the most difficult to detect, as juvenile victims may be too frightened to speak out. Fathers, uncles, or even older brothers, are often powerful figures in traditional family structures, and when they use their status to sexually abuse young girls, the victims struggle to obtain justice.

Such a situation featured in heated discussion involving the case in Yantai, in which the alleged assaults over a period of more than three years began just weeks after the girl turned 14－the age of sexual consent in China.

Yue Shenshan, a co-partner at the Yuecheng Law Firm in Beijing, said the age of consent refers to the minimum age at which a person is legally considered to be capable of consenting to sexual acts. Put another way, if an older person engages in a sexual act with a minor under the age of consent, this is considered child sexual abuse or statutory rape.

In China, rape carries a prison sentence of three to 10 years, but an offender who has sexual relations with a girl under the age of 14, with or without consent, is automatically guilty of statutory rape and can face the death penalty.

Yue said setting this age depends on "what a girl knows about sex". If, at a certain age, say 14 or 15, she is insufficiently physically or mentally mature for sexual activities, the age of consent should be set higher, he added.

According to the Age of Consent website, which details international standards, 147 out of 201 countries and regions surveyed set the age of consent as older than 14, with Bahrain having the highest age of 21. In the United States, the age of consent varies from state to state, and is mostly from 16 to 18.

Shocked by the "Nth Room case", South Korea last month revised its age of consent from 13 to 16, following accusations that the law against sex crimes was too weak.

In China, proposals to raise the age of consent were also put forward last month during the two sessions in Beijing－the high-profile annual meetings of the nation's top legislative and political advisory bodies.

Xie Wenmin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said the current age of 14 is insufficient to protect underage girls from sex crimes, and proposed raising it to 16.

Zhu Lieyu, a National People's Congress deputy and lawyer from Guangdong province, proposed raising the age of consent based on different situations.

Individuals should be at least 18 to consent to having sex with a trusted person, such as a teacher, and the age of consent in all other situations should be raised to 16, Zhu said.

Chen Wenchao, an assistant judge at Chaoyang District People's Court in Beijing, agreed with Zhu's suggestion, but said a more sophisticated and clearly designed regulation is needed.

However, legal reform alone cannot fully address child sexual abuse, Chen said.

"Criminal law is the bottom line of social morality. It's more of a social issue to protect children from sexual assaults," she added.