Hong Kong child sexual abuse cases surge 60% as NGO urges evidence-based prevention measures

Hong Kong has seen a 60 per cent increase in child sexual abuse cases over the past six years amid a broader upward trend in the maltreatment of minors, a local group has said, calling for evidence-based prevention measures to be strengthened.

NGO Against Child Abuse said on Wednesday that the rate of child abuse soared from 0.92 per 1,000 children in 2020 to 1.54 in 2025 – a 67 per cent increase over the six-year period – citing data from the Social Welfare Department’s Child Protection Registry.

For the first time in more than two decades, the number of child sexual abuse cases matched that of physical abuse cases against minors, with 501 cases recorded in 2025, the organisation said, calling the situation “concerning.” Physical abuse had long been the most common form of child maltreatment.

Patrick Cheung, chairperson of Against Child Abuse, attributed the sharp increase to a myriad of factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic, economic downturn, parenting style changes, as well as recent legislation such as the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance, which was enacted in January.

In particular, Cheung said the rise of child sexual abuse was related to internet activities and highlighted the increasing problem of online sexual grooming targeting minors.

“A lot of the times we see that the perpetrators of child sexual abuse are peers and people met on the internet,” Cheung said in Cantonese during a press conference.

Long-term harm

Patrick Ip, clinical professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, said studies over the past decade had found that child abuse could inflict long-term harm on children across their social, psychological, behavioural, and biological development.

One 2024 study showed that child abuse survivors exhibited a higher chance of obesity – potentially due to impairment to the brain’s prefrontal lobe, which specialises in self-regulation – while a study in 2022 found that victims reported higher inflammatory responses years after the maltreatment took place, Ip said.

Ip also noted that “family dysfunction” has become a severe problem in recent years, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, when children had to stay home for schooling due to prolonged class suspensions.

“Not only does [family dysfunction] diminish familial bonding, it also makes parents incapable and unwilling to maintain quality interactions with their children,” Ip said in Cantonese.

“It creates a scenario in which children become used to facing their problems alone. And when there isn’t a good buffering system or support system for struggling children and parents alike, the risk of abuse increases,” he added.

Multi-pronged measures

But Ip also pointed to a 2022 study that found “positive parenting intervention” – meaning professional support regarding parenting style and emotion management – can improve parent-child interactions in low-income households.

The results showed that parenting outcomes are modifiable with the appropriate intervention, which also lowers the risk of child abuse, he said.

The NGO called on society as a whole to raise awareness around the long-term consequences of child abuse and to increase sensitivity about high-risk families, enabling early identification and support.

It also supported calls on authorities to introduce an offence of persistent child sexual abuse in upcoming sex law reforms, which have been championed by rights groups.

Asked whether the city should follow countries such as Australia in banning children from social media, Cheung said the city should adopt a multi-pronged approach to prevent online sexual abuse against minors.

Society needs to step up education for children regarding how to ensure safety online, while social media platforms should implement measures protecting minors from predators, he said.

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Hans Tse is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in local politics, academia, and media transformation. He was previously a social science researcher, with writing published in the Social Movement Studies and Social Transformation of Chinese Societies journals. He holds an M.Phil in communication from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Before joining HKFP, he also worked as a freelance reporter for Initium between 2019 and 2021, where he covered the height - and aftermath - of the 2019 protests, as well as the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.