Two Years Since Complete Overhaul of Child Abuse Response System... Seoul City Hosts Joint Forum on Child Abuse Prevention

Discussion on Tightened Community-Based Joint Response from Discovery to Protection of Abused Children

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 19th, to commemorate the 16th ‘Child Abuse Prevention Day,’ the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 16th that it will jointly hold the ‘Seoul Child Abuse Prevention and Response Cooperation Forum’ with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family on the 17th at the Seoul Women’s Plaza.

This event was organized to review the child abuse response cooperation system in Seoul two years after the implementation of the public investigation of child abuse, and to explore ways to strengthen future community-based child abuse cooperation by comparing it with overseas child abuse response systems. At this forum, Professor Kim Hyung-mo of the Department of Social Welfare at Kyonggi University will deliver a keynote speech on the theme of ‘Cooperation in Seoul’s Community-Based Child Abuse Response System.’ Professor Kim will compare foreign and domestic child abuse response systems and present step-by-step tasks for Seoul’s child abuse response.

Through presentations of cooperation cases among autonomous districts, police stations, and child protection agencies, the forum will examine factors of cooperation among local child abuse response entities following the complete overhaul of the child abuse response system, and will also explore future tasks for a more thorough response system. No Hee-kyung, team leader of the Child Protection Team at Gangdong District Office, will present excellent cooperation cases in the child abuse response system. She will introduce the formation of the Child Abuse Response Information Linkage Council for strengthening joint responses, major cases, efforts to prevent recurrence of child abuse through follow-up management, the establishment and operation of a safety monitoring team for suspected child abuse reports, and cases of public-private collaboration.

Sergeant Im Hee-cheol, Abuse Prevention Officer (APO) at Yeongdeungpo Police Station, will present on the ‘Joint Inspection of Lodging Facilities by Related Agencies’ conducted as a child abuse prevention project in 2022. He will provide cases of joint inspections with autonomous districts, police, and child protection agencies, share know-how on awareness improvement activities through abuse prevention publicity, and offer suggestions to strengthen cooperation in the child abuse response system.

Chae Sung-yong, director of the Eastern Seoul Child Protection Agency, will introduce the roles and collaboration systems of each entity and present excellent cases of emergency measures for child abuse. He will suggest improvement tasks such as active cooperation cases, continuous monitoring to prevent re-abuse, collaboration with various related agencies, and the establishment of a preemptive prevention system for achieving zero child abuse in Seoul.

This forum, held both online and offline, will take place at the 2nd-floor library of the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family and will be broadcast live in real time through the foundation’s YouTube channel. The contents shared and proposed at the forum will be actively reflected in the future policy directions and detailed implementation tasks of Seoul City.

Kim Seon-soon, head of the Women and Family Policy Office of Seoul City, said, “Over the past two years, we have been striving to create a seamless cooperation system through business agreements with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, joint training with related agencies, and on-site consulting to strengthen cooperation among child abuse response personnel in Seoul.” She added, “We hope for much interest and participation in this forum, which seeks cooperation measures from field experts to create a Seoul where no children suffer from abuse.”

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