Vulnerable children left without adequate care have been in the news much of late and the Federation's social workers handle cases like the one appearing in today's papers.* There have been several recent local tragedies involving minors injured or killed in fires at home, and there has been the internationally reported case of Madeleine McCann, the child who disappeared from a Portuguese hotel bedroom while her parents were out.

The recent increase in the number of child abuse cases (in Hong Kong) shows that the problem is often linked to poor families with low educational levels, and parents having little time to take care of their children.*

Priscilla Lui Tsang Sun-kai, Director, Against Child Abuse, Hong Kong

Legislation against child neglect in Hong Kong appears in Sections 26-27 of the Offences Against the Person Ordinance (Chapter 212) (Schedule 1) although cases brought to prosecution under this Ordinance are rare.

Implementing legislation is an expensive and impossible task…how do we know children are left unattended? Do we have a team of people marching into the public's households?**

According to the US National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, child neglect is: …a type of maltreatment that refers to the failure by the caregiver to provide needed, age-appropriate care although financially able to do so or offered financial or other means to do so.

There are many reasons why children are left alone, albeit briefly. With more and more children growing up with two working parents or a single parent, there is a clear need for after school programmes such as those offered by HKFYG Youth SPOTs . They go some way to mitigate the risks and for the needy, there are Social Welfare Department subsidies. The cost is HK$1,000 per month for care between 3.30pm and 7pm.

The programmes offer homework and revision tutorials as well as small group recreational activities. Officers at the Youth SPOTs in Tin Yuet and Shaukeiwan, which have after school groups of 30-40 children and where well over half of the participants are subsidised, commented:

We never close at 7pm sharp. We'll take care of the children till 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, even 11pm. If nobody comes to collect them on time, we let them stay in our SPOT till 10pm, offering them snacks. After 10pm, we may escort them home if they have keys.

Fiona, officer in charge, Tin Yuet Youth SPOT

If we had extra resources we could extend our official hours and organise activities on Saturday or Sunday as well.

Monica, officer in charge, Shaukeiwan Youth SPOT

The children read story books and do cookery, drum-playing, dancing, handicraft and ball-games. There are also museum visits, camping and hiking. The goal is to build self-esteem and self-confidence, improving their inter-personal relationships and raising EQ & AQ.

Fiona, officer in charge, Tin Yuet Youth SPOT

Welfare Priorities for 2008-2009, set out by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service***, itemise key issues for concern for supporting children and their families. They recognise the stress of long working hours and the problems of looking after offspring, especially for single parent families, the number of which have increased by over 70% from 1996 to 2005. In other nuclear families, almost half of the parents are both in the workforce and over 200,000 work over 60 hours a week.

* The Standard 10 October 2007
** www.aca.org.hk/app/posppr/20061129/20060629b.pdf
*** www.hkcss.org.hk/sd/sd/WPS0809.pdf

Last month, child rights advocates from around the world met in Manila at the 7th Asian Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect, of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN). The conference has been held in Hong Kong and Singapore in the past. In Hong Kong the theme was Protecting Children in the 21st. Century-Creating Peace & Stability for Children/Families.

From 30th October till 2nd November, the 11th Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect (ACCAN 2007), will be held at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, Queensland, It will bring together professionals, service providers, community representatives and young people from the human services sector across the Australasian and Pacific regions to review research, innovative policy and practice and to identify key actions to prevent child abuse and neglect. Visit www.ccm.com.au/accan/ for more information.

A study by the National Institute on Out-of-School Time in the US indicates that teenagers who are left unsupervised for over 10 hours a week are 10% more likely to try drugs and alcohol as those with supervision. Teens who are unsupervised after school are 37% more likely to become teen parents.*

A survey by the National Institute on Out-of-School Time at Wellesley College in the US, reported that parents of over 28 million American school children were working outside the home in 2007. 36% of children report spending time at home alone at least once a week with 16% spending 3-4 days a week alone after school. Over half said they would watch less TV and play fewer video games if they had other things to do instead.**

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in Britain revealed in July that almost half of all 15-year-olds had been involved in violent fighting and 38% of teenagers had sex in a 12-month period.*** IPPR called for a requirement for pupils to take part in after-school activities. The British government has announced a 10-year "youth strategy" to tackle delinquency including a youth club in every neighbourhood.

A 2006 position paper from the Hong Kong's Against Child Abuse refers to a government survey of households that showed children under 12 had been left alone in over 40% of the homes and that parents were not worried about it.**** Nevertheless, there were 165 reported deaths of unattended children between 1989 and 2002. These figures are a mere indication of the size of the problem of home alone children.

The Afterschool Alliance commissioned a survey***** to explore how America's children spend their afternoons. 14.3 million take care of themselves after school ends. 6.5 million children are in after school programmes but the parents of another 15.3 million say the kids would participate in affordable after school activities. Not only the children but also the parents benefit. In Hong Kong, the provision of after school care allows parents in deprived areas to travel further to work and earn more.

* http://www.niost.org/publications/Final2007FactSheet.pdf
** http://www.niost.org/
*** Daily Telegraph 26 July 2007
**** http://www.aca.org.hk/menu/ef_menu.html?8
***** http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/america_3pm.cfm