As challenges surrounding child protection, youth mental health and digital safety become increasingly complex, Save the Children Hong Kong submitted its recommendations on the 2026-27 Policy Address, urging the Government to place child rights and child well-being at the heart of policymaking. The organisation calls for a more comprehensive and prevention-based child protection system, shifting the policy focus from reactive intervention to proactive prevention, early identification and cross-sector support, so that every child can grow up in a safe, healthy and respectful environment.
While public awareness of child protection has grown in recent years, child abuse and children’s mental health remain pressing concerns in Hong Kong. According to the latest official statistics from the Social Welfare Department, 1,354 newly registered child protection cases were recorded in 2025, representing a cumulative increase of 44% from 940 cases in 2020. Meanwhile, according to the Department of Health’s Annual Health Report of the Student Health Service, 6,848 students reported having planned to commit suicide in the 2024/25 academic year, while nearly 3,000 reported having attempted suicide, underscoring the urgent need to strengthen both child protection and mental health support for children and young people.
Save the Children Hong Kong stresses that child protection must go beyond case identification and reporting. It should comprehensively cover children’s physical and mental well-being, family support, school- and community-based prevention, organisational safeguarding responsibilities, and children’s safety in the digital environment. The organisation recommends that the Government adopt four key policy directions in the upcoming Policy Address: strengthening the implementation of the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance and planning for its future expansion; enhancing child and youth mental health, Social and Emotional Learning and family support; embedding Child Safeguarding policies across the sports sector, corporate volunteer and mentorship schemes, and child-serving organisations; and strengthening digital safety and digital literacy among children, families and child-facing professionals.
The full text of the recommendations is available on our website https://savethechildren.click/Policy-Address-2026-27-Recommendation-PR-Eng .
The key highlights of our core policy recommendations are as follows:
1. Strengthening the Implementation of the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance and Planning for Future Expansion
Save the Children Hong Kong recommends that the Government introduce specialised training focused on identifying psychological and emotional abuse for the 25 categories of specified professionals, incorporating established real-life case studies to build frontline personnel’s sensitivity and confidence. Furthermore, the Government should explore gradually expanding the mandatory reporting obligation to other personnel working closely with children and youth, including sports coaches, art instructors and private tutors. In the long term, the Government should expedite the establishment of a “Central Databank on Children” by integrating cross-sectoral data across healthcare, education and social welfare, with dedicated inclusion of data on ethnic minority children, children with mental health needs and children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), so that high-risk cases can be identified early and timely intervention can be enabled. We also call upon the Government to grant statutory status to the “Commission on Children” and establish a standing post of “Commissioner for Children” to strengthen policy consistency and further coordinate inter-departmental collaboration.
2. Enhancing Child and Youth Mental Health, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), and Family Support
Save the Children Hong Kong recommends that the Government support and scale evidence-based peer support programmes on campuses, such as “I Support My Friends”, a Youth Psychological First Aid Peer Support Programme co-developed by Save the Children and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The programme equips students with the skills to recognise distress signals and offer empathetic listening, acting as a bridge to encourage and assist high-risk peers in seeking professional support before crises escalate. We also recommend that the Education Bureau (EDB) systematically incorporate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into the mainstream curriculum framework, and optimise the “School-based After-School Care Service Scheme” by transforming it into a key venue for SEL practice. By replacing purely academic and homework-focused routines with sports, play and arts activities, the programme can deliver a stable, safe emotional safety net for grassroots children. At the community level, the Government should lower the age threshold for mental health services at District Health Centres (DHCs), for instance, lowering the minimum assessment age to 12, and position “Community Living Rooms” as buffer spaces for grassroots families by providing parent-child groups, parent peer support groups and positive parenting guidance.
3. Establishing Child Safeguarding (CSG) Policies Across Sectors
Save the Children Hong Kong recommends integrating Child Safeguarding into the sports coach training system and systematically embedding it as a mandatory core module for all levels of coaching certification and registration. The module should cover codes of conduct, identification of child abuse risks, prevention of inappropriate physical contact and reporting protocols. Meanwhile, as corporations increasingly engage in mentorship and volunteer schemes, the Government should require all participating corporate partners and operating organisations to formulate Child Safeguarding Codes and mandate basic CSG training for corporate mentors and volunteers. In the long term, the Government should establish a dedicated fund to support all non-governmental organisations providing child and youth services in formulating and implementing Child Safeguarding Policies, and mandate the Sexual Conviction Record Check (SCRC) as a compulsory component of recruitment processes across all child-serving entities.
4. Strengthening Digital Safety and Enhancing Digital Literacy
Save the Children Hong Kong recommends that the Government broaden the existing digital literacy framework in primary and secondary schools. In addition to IT application, AI literacy and basic cybersecurity, the framework should address internet addiction, cyberbullying, online grooming, sexual exploitation, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, data privacy protection, online help-seeking and responsible AI usage, so as to strengthen children’s ability to navigate online risks. The Government should also provide regular “Digital Management and Application” training for child-facing professionals, including teachers and social workers, to help them identify and address emerging AI-driven risks such as deepfakes, AI-generated inappropriate content, the mental health impacts of AI chatbots, as well as data privacy and algorithmic bias. In addition, the Government should require social media and digital platforms to conduct regular child risk assessments, with a view to minimising children’s exposure to harmful content, including cyberbullying, online grooming and child sexual exploitation.