Professionals who fail to report child abuse may face imprisonment! Hong Kong's new regulation takes effect today.

On January 20th, the Hong Kong "Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance" officially came into effect. The Ordinance stipulates that 25 specified professionals in the fields of social welfare, education, and healthcare, among others, must report as soon as possible if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that a child is suffering from serious harm or is at risk of serious harm. Any specified professional who violates the mandatory reporting provisions of the Ordinance may be fined at the highest level of level 5 and imprisoned for three months upon conviction. The Ordinance also provides protection for specified professionals, prohibiting anyone from intentionally obstructing or impeding any specified professional from making a report, or disclosing the identity of the specified professional making the report. A spokesperson for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's Labour and Welfare Bureau said: "The effective implementation of the Ordinance builds a comprehensive and effective protection network for children, marking an important milestone in Hong Kong's child protection efforts."