No more bullies! Chongqing acts to protect kids

When Wu Xiaohui first read about the launch of a mobile app with a focus on child protection, she felt compelled to download it and check how it works.

As a mother of a 12-year-old girl, she pays close attention to issues regarding the protection of the underage population.

In her eyes, the launch of the app in southwest China’s Chongqing, where she lives and works, provides a new outlet for old problems, but also seems long overdue.

Wu said she was emotionally affected by a school bullying-themed film called “Better Days.” Lead character Chen Nian, who throws herself into preparing for the national college entrance exam, becomes a target of school bullying and embroiled in a murder.

“I often wonder whether Chen may have had a different destiny, had there been a channel for her teacher to report the predicament which the girl was going through,” Wu said.

Now, the mobile app could be one of those channels, and a readily available way to curb school bullying, Wu said.

Authorities in Chongqing recently rolled out a mobile app, demanding that relevant departments and individuals timely report tip-offs or evidence of children being harmed or at risk.

The action follows a guideline issued in May by nine national authorities, including the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Education.

The harm and risks cover sexual abuse, assault, bullying, domestic violence, desertion, abduction, poisoning, forced begging and other potential risks, according to the guideline.

Co-developed by the people’s procuratorate of Chongqing’s Jiulongpo District and the district public security bureau, the app, the first of its kind in China, has been put into trial operation in the district since July 23.

Apart from the two agencies, seven other departments of the district, including the supervisory committee, women’s federation and civil administration department, have joined in the initiative and will play their respective roles and jointly act.

“Compared with calling the police directly, which mainly serves to crack down on crimes, the app undertakes functions of collecting clues in advance and preventing harm to minors,” said He Ke, an official with the people’s procuratorate of Jiulongpo.

He listed some probabilities, for example, a school teacher finding that a student often has bruises on his or her body. Situations like these may or may not involve the harm of a minor, but a timely report may help prevent this.

The authorities stipulated that all institutions engaged in child-related work in Jiulongpo, including kindergartens, primary and middle schools, as well as after-school training agencies, should download the app as they have the obligation, and bear the responsibility of protecting children.

The nine departments can assess potential hazards and the seriousness of the clues or evidence, including text, photos and videos, which are uploaded onto the database of the app.