Beijing Women's Federation

It is a strategic mission with a great impact on the future of the Chinese nation to implement the policies of gender equality and promote the healthy growth of children. The Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Beijing Municipal People's Government are committed to protecting the lawful rights and interests of women and children and promoting their all-round development. The municipal government released a plan for women and children's development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) that puts the protection of their lawful rights and interests and the promotion of their comprehensive development on the top of the agenda of social economic development. The Beijing Municipal Working Committee on Children and Women invites some experts to interpret the plan in terms of major concerns and topics in society.

The following interpretation is made by Nan Fang, an associate researcher with the Institute of Comprehensive Governance in the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.

Recently Beijing published its plan for women and children's development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25). As an important guideline document for women and children's development in the city, the plan underscores the prevention of accident-related injuries among minors, the safety of consumer goods for children, the priority given to the protection of their safety during major public emergencies, the building of safe campuses and the protection of children in cyberspace in the newly created Children and Safety section. It responds to new circumstances and requirements in the protection of children's safety in the new era and comes up with specific requirements for the realization of high-quality protection of children's safety as Beijing is built into a world-class capital city with a harmonious and pleasant living environment.

I. Strengthen institutional building and prioritize prevention to reduce social cost brought by children's injuries

Injuries are a common threat to the health of children around the world. Drowning and traffic accidents are the leading causes of the death of Chinese children. Research and practice at home and abroad show that the adoption of preventive measures can effectively curb the occurrence of accident-related injuries in children and fundamentally lower the burden on families and the society brought by children's injuries, producing relatively higher investment-driven profits. During the 13th Five-Year Plan Period (2016-20), Beijing conducted epidemiological investigation of accident-related injuries among children, studied comprehensive intervention patterns, and explored the establishment of an inter-department cooperation mechanism that could intervene to prevent child injuries, deepening intervention research on children's injuries and carrying on specific practices.

The Children and Safety section in the plan has listed the reduction of accident-related death and disabilities among children and the improvement of safety standards for goods made specifically for children as key objectives in the endeavors to protect children's safety, clarifying the responsibilities shared by children's guardians and educational institutes for keeping children away from injuries and providing them with education on safety. Meanwhile, it calls for the building of a cross-department cooperation mechanism on safeguarding the safety of children, comes up with multiple measures to prevent and control the occurrence of children's injuries caused by drowning, falls, traffic accidents, burning and poisoning, and improves collection of classified data on accidental and intentional injuries among children and monitoring and assessment mechanisms in a move to intensify the precision of injury prevention and intervention.

II. Improve industrial standards and strengthen regulatory measures to comprehensively promote the safety of consumer goods for children

The overall quality and safety of food and drugs reserved for children have enjoyed a good reputation over the past years. Nevertheless, safety accidents of baby formula, school meals, children’s toys, stationery and running tracks have sometimes occurred. Many parents are concerned about the quality of consumer goods for children since it is directly related to their safety and health. The improvement of technical regulations and quality standards is crucial to effectively curbing safety problems in children's goods and promoting the healthy development of the industry of infants and children's products. During the 13th Five-Year Plan Period (2016-20), Beijing rolled out many laws on children's food and drugs and strengthened relevant institutional building, creating a sound market order for child-focused commodities.

The plan makes it clear that drugs, toys and garments reserved for children should be covered with quality inspections to further raise their safety standards. Efforts should be made to get the quality and safety risks of powdered infant formula under strict control, strengthen the monitoring of adverse symptoms induced by drugs in children and create institutional guarantees to bring the quality of children’s goods to a new height in Beijing.

III. Stick to a children-friendly development approach and attach great importance to the protection of children's safety in public emergencies

Children and teenagers are heavily dependent on their families and residential communities for physical and mental support when they encounter public emergencies. Therefore, parents, families and society should grant more care and assistance to children in the protection of their basic rights during public emergencies. However, the protection of their lawful rights and interests hasn't been fully reflected in the handling of public emergencies.

The plan stresses that children's special needs should be taken into full consideration in the prevention and handling of public emergencies, and specifies the objectives and measures in the evaluation systems of their unique needs at those times. The design of emergency governance systems should attach more importance to the systematic and regulatory protection of children's safety in the endeavors to guarantee their overall rights and interests. The plan highlights children-first and children-friendly principles in emergency governance. Schools and kindergartens are urged to conduct emergency drills against fire and earthquakes on a regular basis and bolster the capabilities of teachers, children and their guardians in the identification of disaster risks and in the response to disasters. This further helps raise the quality and effect of the protection of children's legal rights and interests in the entire process of public emergencies and minimize disaster-related injuries among children.

IV. Adopt stricter measures to promote campus safety

Campus safety is a paramount task for kindergartens and primary and middle schools since they are key venues where children and teenagers receive academic knowledge and play together. Beijing has always attached great importance to campus safety since it is closely related to the sense of safety and happiness among local people. For instance, the municipal government in 2018 required all local kindergartens and primary and middle schools to basically reach the standards of a safe campus by 2020 and formulated specific indicators in the assessment of relevant work.

To fully implement the overall plan on further improving public security in Beijing, the plan comes up with specific targets in the work of strengthening the security response measures in local kindergartens and primary and middle schools during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period (2021-25). The building of a safe campus should give priority to the prevention and control of bullying and strengthen the inspection of any hidden violent risks. With regard to the comprehensive management of security around schools, the plan calls for the installation of internet-connected surveillance cameras in various locations around schools and major public places and the improvement of traffic facilities in all places neighboring the campus. This will help build a secure and harmonious campus environment with public trust.

V. Underscore key work and empowerment to create a new pattern for protection of minors in digital world

A 2020 report on the internet utilization of minors in China shows that the population of children with access to the internet is continuing to rise and that there is a growing trend for minors going online at an early age. Right now, a majority of children have their own smart phones and tablet computers to support online learning and surf the internet. The utilization of the internet has become an indispensable part of children's life and the early exposure to the internet has brought great challenges to protecting them in the digital world. The newly amended law on the protection of minors has focused on the protection of children relevant on the internet in a special chapter, making clear regulations on a wide range of topics such as the improvement of their internet literacy, the responsibilities of government agencies, the protection of children from online addiction and of personal information, and the fight against online bullying.

The plan stresses that the implementation of the law on the protection of minors requires full protection of them in cyberspace and the improvement of their internet literacy. It calls for a combination of management of key aspects and coverage of all areas, with the introduction of powerful measures to create a clean online environment for children. A convenient, feasible and effective complaint and report mechanism would be put in place to facilitate the building of a healthy and civilized online environment for minors. The classification and management of online games will be enhanced through the introduction of technical measures such as special modes for minors and special protective software. The crackdown on illegal spread of children's personal information will be strengthened. The plan says that efforts will be made to improve internet literacy among children and their guardians and to add education on children's internet safety to family education. Differentiated guidance approaches will be adopted to strengthen information recognition and online self-protection capabilities, comprehensively safeguard the lawful rights of children who use the internet, support them to grow up safely and healthily, and help them better adapt to new requirements in the digital era.