Judicial body gets tough on crimes against, by minors

From 2018 to October this year, procuratorial organs have prosecuted more than 224,000 people for crimes against minors, a senior official of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on Friday.

Zhang Jun, the procurator-general of the SPP, presented a report on the procuratorial work on minors during a consultation session on promoting the judicial protection of minors' rights and interests. The session was held by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body in Beijing.

From January to October, more than 28,000 minor suspects were prosecuted, up 21.9 percent, 14.7 percent and 35.5 percent over the same periods in 2018, 2019 and 2020, he said.

This year, among the cases of violent crimes committed by minors, 68.6 percent have been committed by those whose parents were absent. More than 2,000 left-behind children in rural areas have been involved in cases of crimes against minors this year, according to Zhang.

From January to October, the number of people prosecuted for school violence and bullying was down 73.5 percent, 57.2 percent and 14.4 percent over the same periods in 2018, 2019 and 2020, he said.

Zhang also noted that with the development of information network technology, more minors have been using or even got addicted to the Internet.

He said that some online platforms are filled with vulgar and unhealthy content, and some network anchors induce minors to pay high rewards, which seriously infringes on minors' physical and mental health and legitimate rights and interests, he said.