Order of the President of the People's Republic of China

No. 57

The Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Minors, adopted at the 22nd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on October 17, 2020, is hereby promulgated and shall come into force as of June 1, 2021.  

Xi Jinping

President of the People's Republic of China

October 17, 2020

Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Minors

(Adopted at the 21st Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress on September 4, 1991; revised by the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress at the 25th Meeting on December 29, 2006; amended in accordance with the Decision on Revising the Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Minors made by the Standing Committee of the Eleventh National People's Congress at the 29th Meeting on October 26, 2012; revised by the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress at the 22nd Meeting on October 17, 2020)

Contents

Chapter I   General Provisions

Chapter II   Protection by the Family

Chapter III  Protection by the School

Chapter IV  Protection by Society

Chapter V   Internet Protection

Chapter VI  Protection by the Government

Chapter VII  Judicial Protection 

Chapter VIII  Legal Responsibility

Chapter IX  Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I

General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution for the purpose of protecting the physical and mental health of minors, safeguarding their lawful rights and interests, promoting their all-around development -- moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and hard-working spirit development, training them to be builders of and successors to the socialist cause with lofty ideals, sound morality, better education and a good sense of discipline, and fostering them to be a new generation to undertake the task of national rejuvenation. 

Article 2 For the purposes of this Law, minors mean citizens under the age of 18.

Article 3 The State shall guarantee minors' right to life, the right to development, the right to being protected and the right to participation. 

Minors shall enjoy all the lawful rights equally according to law, and shall not be discriminated due to the ethnic status, race, gender, census register, profession, religious belief, education, family background, and physical and mental condition of themselves, their parents or other guardians. 

Article 4 The protection of minors shall adhere to the principle of the best interests of minors. In handling the matters related to minors, the following requirements shall be fulfilled: 

(1) Giving special and preferential protection to minors;

(2) Respecting the personal dignity of minors;

(3) Protecting privacy and personal information of minors;

(4) Following the law and characteristics of minors' physical and mental development;

(5) Considering the opinion of minors; and

(6) Combining protection with education.

Article 5 The State, society, schools and families shall conduct education to minors in ideals, morality, science, culture, rule of law, national security, health, hard-working spirit, as well as in patriotism, collectivism and socialism with Chinese characteristic, foster among them the social ethics of loving the motherland, the people, the work, science and socialism to withstand the corrosive influence of capitalism, feudalism and other decadent ideologies, and guide minors to cultivate and practice the core values of Chinese socialism.

Article 6 To protect minors is the common responsibility of State organs, armed forces, political parties, people's organizations, enterprises and institutions, social organizations, self-governing mass organizations at grass-root level in urban and rural areas, guardians of minors and other adult citizens.

The State, society, schools and families shall educate and assist minors to safeguard their lawful rights and interests, enhance their awareness and ability of self-protection.

Article 7 The parents or other guardians of minors shall undertake the guardian's responsibility to minors according to law.

The State shall adopt measures to guide, support, assist and supervise the parents or other guardians of minors to execute their guardian's responsibilities.

Article 8 People's governments above the county level shall include the work of protection of minors in their national economic and social development plans and include the funds needed for the work into their budgets.

Article 9 People's governments above the county level shall establish a coordination mechanism of protection of minors, planning overall, coordinating, promoting and guiding the protection work of the relevant departments within the scope of their respective responsibilities. The specific work of the coordination mechanism shall be undertaken by the civil affairs department of the people's government above the county level, and the people's government at the provincial level may also decide the specific work to be undertaken by other relevant departments according to the actual situation.

Article 10 The Communist Youth League, the women's federation, trade union, the disabled person's federation, the working committee for caring the next generation, the Youth Federation, the students' federation, the young pioneers and other people's organizations and relevant social organizations shall assist people's governments at all levels and their relevant departments, the people's procuratorates and the people's courts in the protection of minors, safeguarding their lawful rights and interests.

Article 11 Any organization or individual has the right to discourage, prevent, or report or make an accusation against an act to the public security, civil affairs, education and other relevant departments, which is not conducive to the physical or mental health of minors or infringes upon the lawful rights and interests of minors.

When a State organ, residents' committee, villagers' committee, or unit that has close contact with minors and its staff discover that the physical or mental health of minors has been infringed, is suspected to have been infringed, or facing other dangerous situations in their work, they shall make an instant report to the public security, civil affairs, education or other relevant departments.

When receiving a report of an offense, accusation or report involving minors, the relevant departments shall accept and handle it in a timely manner in accordance with the law, and inform the relevant units or personnel of the handling results in an appropriate way.

Article 12 The State shall encourage and support scientific research on the protection of minors, establish relevant disciplines and specialties, and strengthen personnel training.

Article 13 The State shall establish and improve the statistics and investigation system for minors, to carry out statistics, investigation and analysis of minors' health and education, and publish relevant information on the protection of minors.

Article 14 The State shall commend and reward organizations and individuals that have made remarkable achievements in the protection of minors.

Chapter II

Protection by the Family

Article 15 The parents or other guardians of minors shall learn family education, accept guidance on family education, and create a good, harmonious and civilized family environment.

Other adult family members living together with minors shall assist their parents or other guardians in raising, educating and protecting the minors. 

Article 16 The parents or other guardians of minors shall perform the following duties under guardianship:

(1) To provide minors with life, health, safety and other aspects of protection;

(2) To care for the physical, psychological and emotional needs of minors;

(3) To educate and guide minors to abide by the law, to be diligent and thrifty, and to develop a good moral character and behavior habits; 

(4) To conduct safety education for minors to improve their self-protection awareness and ability;

(5) To respect minors' right to receive education and ensure that school-age minors receive and complete compulsory education in accordance with the law;

(6) To ensure the time of rest, entertainment and physical exercise for minors, and guide them to carry out activities beneficial to their physical and mental health;

(7) To properly manage and protect the property of minors; 

(8) To act for minors to carry out civil legal acts in accordance with law; 

(9) To prevent and stop the bad behaviors and illegal and criminal behaviors of minors and conduct reasonable discipline; and

(10) Other duties under guardianship that should be performed.

Article 17 The parents or other guardians of minors shall not perform any of the following acts:

(1) To maltreat, abandon, illegally place out minors for adoption or conduct domestic violence against minors;

(2) To allow, abet or use minors to commit crimes; 

(3) To allow or abet minors to participate in religious cults or superstitious activities, or to accept terrorism, separatism, extremism and other violations; 

(4) To allow or abet minors to smoke (including e-cigarettes, the same below), drink, gamble, wander and beg or bully others; 

(5) To allow or force the minors who should receive compulsory education to drop out of school; 

(6) To allow minors to indulge in the internet and contact with books, newspapers, films, radio and television programs, audio-visual products, electronic publications or internet information that endangers or may affect their physical or mental health;

(7) To allow minors to enter commercial entertainment places, bars, internet service places and other places not appropriate for minors;

(8) To allow or force minors to engage in labor other than those prescribed by the State;

(9) To allow or force minors into marriage or engagement;

(10) To illegally dispose of or misappropriate the property of minors or make use of minors to seek unlawful interests; or

(11) Other acts that infringe upon minors' physical or mental health, property rights and interests, or fail to perform duties of protecting minors according to the law.

Article 18 The parents or other guardians of minors shall provide a safe family living environment for them, and timely eliminate the potential safety hazards that may cause electric shock, scald, fall and other injuries; measures should be taken to prevent minors from being injured by traffic accidents by equipping cars with child safety seats and educating them to abide by traffic rules; parents or other guardians shall improve minors' awareness of outdoors safety to avoid drowning, animal injury and other accidents.

Article 19 When making decisions concerning the rights and interests of minors, their parents or other guardians shall, on the basis of minors' age and intellectual development, hear their opinions and consider their true will.

Article 20 When the parents or other guardians of a minor find that the physical or mental health of the minor has been infringed, or is suspected to have been infringed, or other lawful rights and interests have been infringed, they shall timely learn about the situation and take protective measures; when the situation is critical, it shall be reported to the public security, civil affairs, education or other departments immediately.

Article 21 The parents or other guardians of minors shall not leave unattended the minors under the age of eight or in need of special care due to physical or psychological reasons, or leave them to temporary care by persons without or with limited capacity for performing civil juristic acts, or suffering from serious infectious diseases, or by other inappropriate persons. 

The parents or other guardians of minors shall not cause the minors under the age of 16 to live alone without guardianship.

Article 22 When the parents or other guardians of minors are unable to fully perform their duties under guardianship within a certain period of time due to reasons as going out to work, they shall entrust a person with full capacity for performing civil juristic acts to attend minors; in case of no proper reasons, the minors shall not be entrusted to be cared by others. 

The parents or other guardians of minors shall, when determining the entrusted persons, take into account their moral character, family background, physical and mental health, and emotional connection with minors, and listen to the opinions of minors who have the ability to express their will.

Any person, under any of the following circumstances, shall not be designated as the entrusted party:

(1) The person who has committed illegal acts or crimes including sexual assault, maltreatment, abandonment, abduction, or violent injury;

(2) The person with drug abuse, alcohol abuse, gambling or other bad habits;

(3) The person who has refused to perform or has been negligent in performing the duty of a guardian or care duty for a long time;

(4) Other circumstances not appropriate for acting as the entrusted person.

Article 23 The parents or other guardians of minors shall promptly inform in writing the minors' schools, kindergartens, and the residents' committee or villagers' committee where they actually live, of the entrusted care, and strengthen communication with their schools or kindergartens; contact and communicate with minors and the entrusted person at least once a week to learn about minors' life, study, psychology, etc., and give them family caring and love.

The parents or other guardians of minors shall, upon receiving notices from the entrusted person, residents' committee, villagers' committee, schools, and kindergartens, about the psychological and behavioral abnormalities of minors, take timely intervention measures. 

Article 24 When a minor's parents decide upon divorce, they shall properly handle matters of the upbringing, education, visitation, property of a minor child, and hear the opinions of the minor who has the ability to express his will. The parents shall not be allowed to struggle for custody by seizing or hiding the minor child.

After the divorce of a minor's parents, the party who does not directly support the child shall visit the minor without affecting his study and life according to the time and procedure determined by an agreement, the people's court's judgment or mediation,. The party who directly supports the minor shall cooperate, except that the right of visitation is suspended by the people's court in accordance with law.

Chapter III

Protection by the School

Article 25 Schools shall comprehensively implement the State policy on education, foster virtue through education, conduct education aimed at all-round development, enhance education quality, stress the cultivation of the students' ability of cognition, cooperation, innovation and practice, to promote their all-over development.

Schools shall establish a working system for protection of the students, improve students' code of conduct, and cultivate good habits of abiding by the law and discipline.

Article 26 Kindergartens shall undertake the responsibilities in care and education, follow the law of children's physical and mental development, implement enlightenment education, and promote the harmonious development of children's physique, intelligence, and moral character.

Article 27 Teaching and administrative staff in schools and kindergartens shall respect the personal dignity of minors, and shall not subject them to corporal punishment or corporal punishment in disguised form, or commit any other act that humiliates the personal dignity of minors.

Article 28 Schools shall guarantee the right of minors to education, and shall not, in violation of State regulations, expel them from school or expel them in disguised form.

Schools should have minors who have not completed compulsory education registered and persuade them to return to school. When the persuasion is invalid, a written report shall be made to the educational administration department in time.

Article 29 Schools shall care for and protect the underage students and shall not discriminate against them on the basis of family, physical conditions, psychology and learning abilities. Special care should be given to students with family difficulties or physical or mental disabilities. Students with abnormal behaviors or learning difficulties should be helped patiently.

Schools shall cooperate with relevant government departments to establish files of left-behind minors and minors in difficult circumstances, and carry out care and assistance work.

Article 30 Schools shall, according to the characteristics of the physical and mental development of minor students, provide guidance for social life, guidance for mental health, education of adolescence and life education.

Article 31 Schools shall organize students to participate in daily life labor, production activities and provide services appropriate to their age, so as to help them master necessary work knowledge and skills and cultivate good working habits.

Article 32 Schools and kindergartens shall carry out publicity and education activities of diligence and thrift, combating waste, cherishing food and civilized diet, to help minors cultivate the sense of shame in waste and pride in saving, and develop civilized, healthy and green living habits.

Article 33 Schools shall cooperate with parents or other guardians of minor students to arrange reasonably their study time and ensure their time for rest, entertainment and physical exercise. 

Schools shall not take up national statutory holidays, rest days and winter or summer holidays, to organize students in the stage of compulsory education to attend extra lessons collectively which will increase their learning burden.

Kindergartens and off-campus training institutions shall not provide primary school curriculum courses to preschool minors.

Article 34 Schools and kindergartens shall provide necessary conditions for health care and assist the health departments in the work of health care for minors in schools and kindergartens.

Article 35 Schools and kindergartens shall establish a safety management system, carry out safety education for minors, improve security facilities and provide security personnel, so as to ensure the personal and property safety of minors in school and in kindergartens.

Schools and kindergartens shall not carry out educational and teaching activities in school buildings or other facilities and places that endanger the personal safety and physical and mental health of minors.

Schools and kindergartens should protect the physical and mental health of minors and prevent personal injury accidents when arranging them to participate in cultural entertainment, social practice and other collective activities.

Article 36 Schools and kindergartens that use school buses shall establish and improve the school bus safety management system, hire safety management personnel, conduct regular safety inspection on school buses, provide safety education to school bus drivers, and instruct minors in school bus safety to cultivate their emergency handling skills for school bus safety accidents.

Article 37 Schools and kindergartens shall, according to their needs, formulate plans for dealing with natural disasters, accidental disasters, public health incidents and other emergencies and accidental injuries, equip them with corresponding facilities and conduct necessary drills on a regular basis.

When a minor suffers a personal injury accident at school or kindergarten, or in the activities outside the school or kindergarten organized by the school or kindergarten, the school or kindergarten shall immediately give first aid and properly handle the injury, promptly notify the parents or other guardians of the minor, and report to the relevant departments.

Article 38 Schools and kindergartens shall not arrange for minors to participate in commercial activities, and shall not sell or require minors and their parents or other guardians to buy designated commodities or services.

Schools and kindergartens shall not cooperate with off-campus training institutions to provide paid tutoring courses for minors.

Article 39 Schools shall establish a working system for the prevention and control of student bullying, and carry out education and training on the prevention and control of student bullying among teaching staff and students.

Schools shall immediately stop the bullying behaviors and inform the parents or other guardians of the bullying and the bullied underage students to participate in the identification and handling of the bullying; provide psychological counseling, education and guidance to relevant minor students in time; and the parents or other guardians of relevant minors shall be given necessary family education guidance.

As for the underage students who are bullies, schools shall strengthen the discipline according to the nature and degree of the bullying in accordance with law. Schools shall not conceal the serious bullying behavior, and shall report it to the public security organ and the educational administration department in time, and cooperate with the relevant departments to deal with it in accordance with law.

Article 40 Schools and kindergartens shall establish a working system for the prevention of sexual assault or harassment to minors. Schools and kindergartens shall not conceal such illegal and criminal acts of sexual assault and harassment to minors. They shall report to the public security organ and the educational administration department in time, and cooperate with relevant departments to deal with such illegal and criminal acts in accordance with the law. 

Schools and kindergartens shall carry out sex education for minors appropriate for their age, and improve their awareness and ability of self-protection against sexual assault or harassment. Schools and kindergartens shall take timely protective measures for minors who suffer from sexual assault or harassment.

Article 41 Infant care service institutions, early education service institutions, off-campus training institutions and off-campus care institutions shall, with reference to the relevant provisions of this chapter, protect minors according to the characteristics and laws of minors' growth at different ages.