Child abuse figures are tip of the iceberg

Underreported maltreatment

The enforced stay-home conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented maltreated children from being noticed by teachers. It also increased the strain on parents prone to inflict violence on children. Only severe injuries or life-threatening wounds brought the victims to hospitals. The pandemic artificially depressed the already low official child abuse statistics.

In Hong Kong, there were 940 registered child maltreatment cases in 2020, down from 1,000 in 2019. But police revealed that child abuse cases in the first quarter of 2021 soared by 68 percent compared with the same period in 2020, according to Chui Wing-hong, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the City University of Hong Kong.

Child maltreatment was hidden from view even more during the coronavirus outbreak, said Clifton Emery, associate professor of social work and social administration at the University of Hong Kong, "This can be deduced from the more-frequent hospital visits, as the problem worsened with injuries inflicted on children." Official figures, registered under such circumstances, do not reflect the scale of the problem. "No government monitors child maltreatment via surveys on a regular basis, so official figures are conservative," Emery said.

From his extensive research into child abuse, Emery estimates that only 1 percent of child maltreatment cases get registered in Hong Kong. As a social alert signal, that is wholly inadequate. Social workers confirm that child abuse is largely a phenomenon of families at the margins of society, handicapped by poor education and low income.

Often, both parents have to work to earn enough for food and other basic necessities. Negligence of children is a fact of life. Given that 20 percent of local residents are below the government's poverty line, the scale of child abuse remains hidden like the proverbial iceberg. Official statistics can reveal only the tip of it.

Save the Children Hong Kong, a non-governmental organization, and Emery are surveying the range of sexual predation online. The official statistics indicate online sexual abuse at 1 to 2 percent, which may not factor in all online sexual victimization. "Most sexual abuse begins with online grooming. There seems to be an inappropriate idea that a 14-year-old child with a 40-year-old boyfriend is not a case of sexual abuse. A minor under the age of 18 cannot reasonably consent to a sexual relationship with someone many years her senior," Emery said.