Uiwang City to Directly Investigate Child Abuse Cases Starting This Month

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Uiwang City announced on the 5th that it will begin directly investigating child abuse victims starting this month by taking over duties from the Gyeonggi Province Child Protection Specialist Agency, the child abuse investigation body.

This comes as the Child Welfare Act was amended in accordance with the presidential policy initiative 'Inclusive Nation Child Policy (2019).' Previously, child abuse investigations were conducted by private organizations known as Child Protection Specialist Agencies. Despite handling duties that exercise coercive power such as child separation and restriction of parental rights, the involvement of private agencies led to frequent limitations such as perpetrators refusing investigation and threats to counselors' safety, which have been highlighted as problems.

In response, the city reorganized its child abuse response system as a leading region for the public child abuse investigation project, aligning with the government policy to supplement these issues and strengthen the public nature and state responsibility of child protection.

In January, the city established the Child-Friendly Team, a dedicated unit for child abuse matters, and assigned one full-time public official to handle child abuse cases. To strengthen support and management for children separated from their families and in protective care, the city also hired one dedicated child protection worker.

Additionally, the city plans to hold regular meetings to establish a collaborative system with the Gyeonggi Province Child Protection Specialist Agency and dedicated child abuse police officers at the Uiwang Police Station, and will work to address potential issues that may arise in the early stages of the public transition through day and night shifts and accompanying emergency responses.

Lee Yoon-ju, head of the Women and Children Division, stated, "The importance of state responsibility for child abuse has increased further due to recent serious child abuse incidents," and added, "The city will make every effort to continuously discover at-risk children in need of protection and conduct ongoing awareness campaigns and prevention activities to prevent child abuse victims from occurring."