![A memorial message and flowers are placed in the high family Andersen Park Cemetery, Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do, where Jung In, who died 16 months after birth due to the abuse of her adoptive parents, was enshrined. [연합뉴스]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/news/component/htmlphoto_mmdata/202101/13/0075adc6-be9c-4616-966b-d51398c6ae4e.jpg?w=560&ssl=1)
A memorial message and flowers are placed in the high family Andersen Park Cemetery, Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do, where Jung In, who died 16 months after birth due to the abuse of her adoptive parents, was enshrined. [연합뉴스]
The Seoul Metropolitan Government initiated an emergency thorough investigation into child abuse with the’Jeong Ini Incident’, but from the beginning, the effectiveness was controversial. Experts advise that “the effect will be achieved only when a thorough preliminary survey of the city and the expansion of professional manpower in each ward office are preceded.”
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 13th that “a total survey of 35,000 children at high risk of child abuse will be conducted by March.” The targets of the survey were 658 children who reported suspicion of abuse more than two times in the last three years and 34,607 children who are most likely to have been neglected through the’e-Child Happiness System’ created to discover the crisis of protected children. The e-Child Happiness System contains information on children who do not go to school even though they are old enough to go to school or who have not received essential vaccinations.
The e-child happiness system created in 2018 was triggered by the case of’Won Young-i’ who lived in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do. Won Young, who was 7 years old, died in February 2016 while being abused by his parents because he could not cover the toilet. At the time, the government created a new system when the public controversy over the Wonyoung case was dated. This is the start of the e-Child Happiness System, which was built with about 1.97 billion won.
It is said that the thorough investigation is’do it closely.’
Pictures of children who died of abuse are hung in front of the Southern District Court in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on the 13th, when the first trial was held against a adoptive parent accused of abusing her 16-month-old adopted daughter In-yang Jung. Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
An official from the Seoul Metropolitan Government explained, “Jung-in has high public interest in the case, and he intends to look closely to prevent possible child abuse accidents.” He said, “Even in October of last year, the police and the ward office worked together to investigate 94 children reported to 112, but child abuse was not found.”
For this reason, it is unclear how effective the’fine three-year total survey’ disclosed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government will be as effective as motivation. This time, the list sent by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to each ward office was also at the level that the Social Security Information Service took over and delivered only the number of children extracted from the e-Child Happiness System. Experts point out that “out of the 35,000 people, the city should have identified the high-risk cases or scale first.”
Regarding this, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said, “The total number that Seoul received through the e-Child Happiness System is the total number, and if information goes down to the autonomous district, the details may go down. “I don’t have the right to see the information directly.” This means that children to be investigated according to their risk level were first classified and not sent to each ward office, but only the total number was delivered and sent to the ward office.
Furthermore, this means that the city of Seoul, which has revealed its willingness to “complete investigation,” has left all investigations to each ward office without knowing the actual situation of the entire child. A Seoul city official said, “I plan to make a plan for this month and send a list of children to be investigated at the ward office.”
Pictures of children who died of abuse are hung in front of the Southern District Court in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on the 13th, when the first trial was held against a adoptive parent accused of abusing her 16-month-old adopted daughter In-yang Jung. Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
There is another problem. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s explanation, the investigation of 658 children who reported suspicion of child abuse more than once would be the responsibility of the public officials in charge of child abuse at each ward office. The investigation period is also tight until March, but there are currently 62 civil servants in charge of child abuse in 25 districts in Seoul. In response, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said, “We will increase the number of people by 10 during the first half of the year to enable a two-person, one-team investigation system.”
Until now,’one person is in charge’… Create a’Child Abroad Response Team’
The city of Seoul also decided to create an internal child abuse response team. The main goal is to create a new team in charge of establishing child abuse countermeasures and shelter management, which had been in charge of one person. In addition, the city of Seoul is also considering a step-by-step transition to direct management of seven specialized child protection institutions that have been entrusted to the private sector.
Members of the Korea Child Abuse Prevention Association and citizens are protesting in front of the Seoul Southern District Court in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on the morning of the first trial date for the adopted mother of the’Jung In-i case’ suspect. Reporter Kim Seong-ryong
Attorney Kim Young-joo (directed by law firm), who served as the head of the Department of Women and Children’s Rights in the Ministry of Justice, said, “It would be nice if we could save even one child through a thorough investigation, but what we really need is to analyze how the e-child happiness system works.”
Attorney Kim also said, “It is doubtful that Jung-in’s case was filtered through this system only from the informational point of view.” “When a public official in charge of child abuse is put into the field, there is a real system that will point out who will be looked at first and what is needed. It is time to think about it.”
Reporter Kim Hyun-ye [email protected]