President Moon: "We Need to Review Preemptive Measures for At-Risk Children"

President Moon Jae-in Orders Measures to Prevent Child Abuse... Also Urged Child Abuse Measures at 2018 Situation Briefing

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] President Moon Jae-in on the 8th instructed, "Carefully examine whether the system for identifying children at risk in advance is functioning well."

Kang Min-seok, spokesperson for the Blue House, stated, "Regarding the case of the death of a 9-year-old child due to abuse in Cheonan, President Moon said, 'It is a regrettable incident that occurred because the system for identifying children at risk did not work,' and instructed, 'We need to look into measures for that part.'"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, at the Chief Presidential Secretary meeting on January 8, 2018, President Moon pointed out, "Watching the report on Go Jun-hee was truly heartbreaking and uncomfortable. Although the number of child abuse reports and confirmed abuse cases has steadily increased recently, the detection rate of child abuse is still far lower compared to OECD countries."

President Moon instructed, "If child abuse of infants and young children is not detected early, the abuse is likely to continue for a long time and lead to serious incidents. Therefore, review the existing child abuse countermeasures and devise ways to enhance their effectiveness and report back."

Spokesperson Kang explained, "Following President Moon's instructions, the government prepared and has been implementing the 'Supplementary Measures for Child Abuse Prevention' since March 2018," adding, "In particular, the ‘e-Child Happiness Support System’ is operated using social security big data to identify and support children in need of protection early."

Kang added, "When the system predicts a family in need of support, local government officials visit the home to assess welfare needs and promote abuse prevention," and noted, "As a result, the child abuse detection rate (number of children judged as abused per 1,000 children) increased from 1.10 in 2014 to 2.98 in 2018."

Spokesperson Kang said, "However, since the time children spend at home has increased due to COVID-19, raising the possibility of child abuse, President Moon's instruction was to find children at risk more actively."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.