Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors (2024 Amendment)

Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors (2024 Amendment)

(Adopted at the 21st session of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress on September 4, 1991, revised for the first time at the 25th session of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress on December 29, 2006, amended for the first time according to the Decision on Amending the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors at the 29th session of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress on October 26, 2012, revised for the second time at the 22nd session of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress on October 17, 2020, and amended for the second time according to the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to Amend the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Popularization of Agricultural Technology, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors, and the Biosecurity Law of the People's Republic of China at the 9th Session of the Standing Committee of the Fourteenth National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on April 26, 2024)
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Protection by the Family
Chapter III Protection by Schools
Chapter IV Protection by the Society
Chapter V Protection on the Network
Chapter VI Protection by Governments
Chapter VII Judicial Protection
Chapter VIII Legal Liability
Chapter IX Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 This Law is developed in accordance with the Constitution for the purposes of protecting the physical and mental health of minors, safeguarding their lawful rights and interests, promoting their all-around development in terms of moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetics, and labor education, training them to builders of and successors to the socialist cause with lofty ideals, sound morality, better education and good sense of discipline, and fostering them as a new generation capable of shouldering the mission of national rejuvenation.
Article 2 For the purposes of this Law, the term “minors” means citizens under the age of 18.
Article 3 The state shall guarantee minors' right to life, right to development, right to being protected, right to participation, and other rights.
Minors equally enjoy all rights in accordance with the law and shall not be discriminated against due to the ethnicity, race, gender, permanent household registration, occupation, religious belief, level of education, family status, and physical and mental health status, among others, of themselves and their parents or other guardians.
Article 4 In the protection of minors, the principle of in the best interest of minors shall be adhered to. The handling of matters involving minors shall satisfy the following requirements:
(1) Offering special and preferential protection to minors.
(2) Respecting the personal dignity of minors.
(3) Protecting the privacy of and personal information on minors.
(4)Following the laws and characteristics of minors' mental and physical health development.
(5) Listening to the opinions of minors.
(6) Combining protection with education.
Article 5 The state, society, schools and families shall educate minors in respect of ideals, morality, science, culture, legal system, national security, health, and labor, strengthen the education of minors in respect of patriotism, collectivism, and socialism with Chinese characteristics, foster among them the social ethics of loving the motherland, the people, working, science, and socialism, fight against the corrosive influences of capitalism, feudalism and other decadent ideologies, and guide minors in establishing and practicing the core socialist values.
Article 6 Protecting minors is the common responsibility of state organs, armed forces, political parties, people's organizations, enterprises and public institutions, social organizations, self-governing mass organizations at grass-roots level in urban and rural areas, guardians of minors and other adults.
The state, society, schools and families shall educate and help minors to protect their lawful rights and interests, and enhance their awareness and capability of protecting themselves.
Article 7 Parents or other guardians of minors shall assume their guardianship duties for minors according to the law.
The state shall take measures to guide, support, assist and supervise parents or other guardians of minors in performing their guardianship duties.
Article 8 The people's governments at or above the county level shall incorporate the protection of minors into the national economic and social development plans and incorporate the relevant expenses into the government budgets at the corresponding levels.
Article 9 People's governments at all levels shall attach importance to and strengthen the protection of minors. The institutions of the people's governments at or above the county level in charge of women's and children's work shall organize, coordinate, guide, and supervise the effective completion of the work on the protection of minors by the relevant departments within the scope of their respective duties.
Article 10 The communist youth league organizations, women's federations, trade unions, disabled persons' federations, working committees for the care of the next generation, youth federations, students' federations, young pioneers' organizations and other people's organizations, and relevant social organizations shall assist the people's governments at all levels and their relevant departments, the people's procuratorates, and the people's courts in effectively performing the work of protection of minors and safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of minors.
Article 11 Any organization or individual finding any circumstance that is harmful to the physical and mental health of minors or infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of minors shall have the right to discourage and stop such circumstance, or file an accusation or complaint against it with the public security, civil affairs, education, and other relevant departments.
State organs, residents' committees, villagers' committees, entities in close contact with minors and their staff members finding in work that minors' physical and mental health has been infringed upon, is suspected of being infringed upon, or is facing other dangerous situations shall immediately report to the public security, civil affairs, education and other relevant departments.
Relevant departments receiving an accusation, complaint or report involving minors shall accept and handle it in a timely manner according to the law, and notify the relevant entity and personnel of the handling results in an appropriate manner.
Article 12 The state shall encourage and support the scientific research on protection of minors, establish related disciplines and majors, and strengthen talent training.
Article 13 The state shall establish and improve a statistical investigation system for minors, carry out statistics of, investigation into, and analysis on minors' health, education, and other conditions, and issue relevant information on the protection of minors.
Article 14 The state shall commend and reward organizations and individuals that have made outstanding achievements in the protection of minors.
Chapter II Protection by the Family
Article 15 Parents or other guardians of minors shall learn about knowledge on family education, accept guidance on family education, and create a favorable, harmonious and civilized family environment.
Other adult family members living together with minors shall assist parents or other guardians of minors in raising, educating and protecting the minors.
Article 16 Parents or other guardians of minors shall assume the following guardianship duties according to the law:
(1) Providing minors with guarantees in life, health, safety and other respects.
(2) Paying attention to the physiological and psychological conditions and emotional needs of minors.
(3) Educating and guiding minors in observing law and discipline, being diligent and thrifty, and developing sound ideology, morality and behavioral habits.
(4) Providing safety education for minors and improving their self-protection awareness and capability.
(5) Respecting the right of minors to receive education and ensuring that minors of school age receive and complete compulsory education in accordance with the law.
(6) Guaranteeing the time of minors for rest, recreation and physical exercise, and guiding minors in carrying out activities that are beneficial to their physical and mental health.
(7) Appropriately managing and protecting the property of minors.
(8) Conducting civil juristic acts as representatives of minors according to the law.
(9) Preventing and stopping minors' misconduct, and illegal and criminal acts, and reasonably disciplining them.
(10) Other guardianship duties to be performed.
Article 17 Parents or other guardians of minors shall not conduct the following acts:
(1) Maltreating or abandoning minors, illegally placing minors out for adoption, or committing domestic violence against minors.
(2) Indulging, instigating or utilizing minors to commit illegal and criminal acts.
(3) Indulging or instigating minors to participate in cults and superstitious activities, or to accept encroachment by terrorism, separatism, and extremism, among others.
(4) Indulging or instigating minors to smoke (including electronic cigarettes, the same below), drink alcohol, gamble, roam the streets for begging, or bully others.
(5) Indulging or forcing minors who should receive compulsory education to be deprived of education or drop out of school.
(6) Indulging minors to be addicted to the Internet or to have access to books, newspapers, periodicals, films, radio and television programs, audio and video recordings, electronic publications, and online information, among others, that are harmful to or may affect their physical and mental health.
(7) Indulging minors to enter commercial entertainment venues, bars, business premises for Internet access services and other places that are inappropriate for minors.
(8) Allowing or forcing minors to engage in labor other than those prescribed by the state.
(9) Allowing or forcing minors to marry or concluding engagements for minors.
(10) Illegally disposing of or embezzling the property of minors, or utilizing minors to seek illicit interests.
(11) Other acts of infringing upon the physical and mental health, property rights and interests of minors or failing to perform the duties of protecting minors in accordance with the law.
Article 18 Parents or other guardians of minors shall provide a safe family living environment for minors, and eliminate potential safety risks that may cause injuries such as electric shocks, scalds, and falls in a timely manner; adopt measures such providing safety seats for children and educating minors to follow traffic rules to prevent minors from being injured by traffic accidents; and raise awareness of outdoor safety protection to prevent minors from drowning, suffering animal injuries, and other accidents.
Article 19 Parents or other guardians of minors shall, based on minors' age and intellectual development status, listen to minors' opinions and fully consider their true will before making decisions concerning minors' rights and interests.
Article 20 Parents or other guardians of minors finding that minors' physical and mental health has been infringed upon or is suspected of being infringed upon, or minors' other lawful rights and interests have been infringed upon shall learn about the situation and take protective measures in a timely manner; and immediately report to the public security, civil affairs, education and other departments, under serious circumstances.
Article 21 Parents or other guardians of minors shall not leave minors under the age of eight or needing special care due to physical or psychological conditions unattended, or hand them over to persons without capacity for civil conduct, persons with limited capacity for civil conduct, persons with severe infectious diseases, or other inappropriate persons for temporary care.
Parents or other guardians of minors shall not allow minors under the age of 16 to live alone without guardianship.
Article 22 Parents or other guardians of minors that cannot fully perform guardianship duties within a certain period of time due to reasons such as leaving their hometowns to work shall entrust persons with full capacity for civil conduct and ability of care to take care of minors; and those who have no justified reasons shall not entrust others to take care of minors.
When determining persons to be entrusted, parents or other guardians of minors shall comprehensively consider their moral character, family status, physical and mental health, and living and emotional connection with minors, and listen to the opinions of minors with ability to express their wishes.
A person falling under any of the following circumstances shall not be entrusted:
(1) Having committed illegal and criminal acts such as sexual assault, maltreatment, abandonment, abduction, and violence.
(2) Having bad habits such as taking drugs, alcohol abuse, and gambling.
(3) Having refused to perform or having been slack in performing guardianship and care duties for a long time.
(4) Other circumstances where the person is inappropriate for being entrusted.
Article 23 Parents or other guardians of minors shall notify minors' schools or kindergartens and the residents' committees or villagers' committees at their actual places of residence of the entrusted care situation in writing in a timely manner, and strengthen communication with minors' schools or kindergartens; and contact and communicate with minors and the entrusted persons once a week at a minimum to learn about minors' life, study, psychology, and other situations, and give minors family love.
Parents or other guardians of minors shall take intervention measures in a timely manner after receiving notifications from the entrusted persons, residents' committees, villagers' committees, schools, and kindergartens, among others, on minors' mental and behavioral abnormalities.
Article 24 When parents of minors are getting divorced, they shall appropriately handle the raising, education, visitation, property and other matters of their minor children, and listen to the opinions of minors who are capable of expressing their wishes. They shall not fight for custody rights by snatching or hiding the minor children.
After a minor's parents are divorced, the party who does not directly raise the minor child shall, at the time and by the method determined by the agreement, or the judgment or mediation of the people's court, visit the minor child without affecting the minor's study or life, and the party who directly raises the minor child shall provide cooperation, except when the visitation right is suspended by the people's court according to the law.
Chapter III Protection by Schools
Article 25 Schools shall fully implement the education policy of the state, insist on strengthening moral education and the cultivation of people, provide quality-oriented education, improve the quality of education, pay attention to cultivating the cognitive capability, cooperation capability, innovation capability and practical capability of minor students, and promote the all-round development of minor students.
Schools shall establish a work system for protecting minor students, improve students' behavioral norms, and cultivate minor students' sound behavioral habits of observing law and discipline.
Article 26 Kindergartens shall effectively perform childcare and education, follow the law of the physical and mental development of children, provide enlightenment education, and promote the harmonious development of children in physical fitness, intelligence, morality and other respects.
Article 27 The faculty members of schools and kindergartens shall respect the personal dignity of minors, and shall not impose corporal punishment or disguised corporal punishment upon minors, or conduct other acts of insulting their personal dignity.
Article 28 Schools shall guarantee minor students' right to receive education and shall not dismiss minor students directly or in a disguised manner in violation of state regulations.
Schools shall register minor students who have not completed compulsory education and have dropped out of school, and persuade them to return to school; and shall report to the education administrative departments in writing in a timely manner, where persuasion fails.
Article 29 Schools shall care for and cherish minor students, and shall not discriminate against any student due to family, physical and mental conditions, and learning ability, among others. Care shall be provided for students with family difficulties and somatopsychic disturbance; and students with abnormal behaviors and learning difficulties shall be patiently helped.
Schools shall cooperate with relevant government departments on creating information files of left-behind minor students and minor students in difficulties, and carry out the care and assistance work.
Article 30 Schools shall, in accordance with the physical and mental development characteristics of minor students, provide guidance on social life, tutorship on mental health, adolescence education and life education.
Article 31 Schools shall organize minor students to participate in daily life labor, production labor and service labor appropriate to their age, and assist minor students in mastering necessary labor knowledge and skills and developing sound labor habits.
Article 32 Schools and kindergartens shall carry out publicity and education activities such as diligence and thrift, opposing waste, cherishing food, and civilized diet, and assist minors in establishing a sense of shame in waste and pride in saving, and cultivating civilized, healthy, and environmental friendly living habits.
Article 33 Schools shall cooperate with parents or other guardians of minor students in reasonably arranging the study time of minor students and guaranteeing their time for rest, recreation and physical exercises.
Schools shall not occupy national legal holidays, rest days, or winter or summer vacations, to organize minor students at the compulsory education stage to make up classes in a collective manner or increase their learning burden.
Kindergartens and after-school training institutions shall not provide primary school curriculum education for preschool minors.
Article 34 Schools and kindergartens shall provide necessary health conditions, and assist the health departments in effectively performing the health work for minors in schools and kindergartens.
Article 35 Schools and kindergartens shall establish a safety management system, conduct safety education for minors, improve security facilities, appoint security personnel, and protect the personal and property safety of minors during their stay at schools and kindergartens.
Schools and kindergartens shall not carry out education or teaching activities in school buildings or other facilities and premises that endanger the personal safety and physical and mental health of minors.
Schools and kindergartens arranging for minors to participate in collective activities such as cultural entertainment and social practice shall protect the physical and mental health of minors and prevent personal injury accidents.
Article 36 Schools and kindergartens that use school buses shall establish and improve the school bus safety management system, appoint safety management personnel, conduct safety inspections on school buses on a regular basis, provide safety education for school bus drivers, explain to minors the knowledge on safe riding of school buses, and cultivate minors' skills of emergency response to school bus safety accidents.
Article 37 Schools and kindergartens shall, as needed, develop plans for responding to natural disasters, disastrous accidents, public health incidents, and other emergencies and accidental injuries, be equipped with corresponding facilities, and conduct necessary drills on a regular basis.
Where a personal injury accident happens to a minor in the school or kindergarten or in an after-school activity or an after-kindergarten activity organized by the school or kindergarten, the school or kindergarten shall immediately conduct rescue, handle it appropriately, notify the parents or other guardians of the minor in a timely manner, and report to the relevant department.
Article 38 No school or kindergarten shall arrange for minors to participate in any commercial activity, promote any goods or service among minors and their parents or other guardians, or require them to purchase designated goods or services.
No school or kindergarten shall cooperate with any after-school training institution on providing paid course tutorship for minors.
Article 39 Schools shall establish a student bullying prevention and control work system, and provide education and training on the prevention and control of student bullying for faculty members and students.
School shall immediately stop bullying behaviors of students, and notify parents or other guardians of bullying and bullied minor students of participating in the identification and handling of bullying behaviors; provide psychological counseling, education and guidance for relevant minor students in a timely manner; and provide necessary family education guidance for parents or other guardians of relevant minor students.
For minor students who conduct bullying, schools shall strengthen discipline in accordance with the law in light of the nature and extent of the bullying behaviors. Schools shall not conceal serious bullying behaviors, and shall report to the public security organs and the education administrative departments in a timely manner, and cooperate with the relevant departments on handling them in acco......