Draft law to ensure kids' privacy, safety

A teacher reads an illustrated children's book at a kindergarten in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, April 7. (WANG ZHENG/FOR CHINA DAILY)

A draft law focusing on protecting privacy and safety of preschool children will have its third review next week.

The draft law is expected to enhance the privacy protection of preschool children, with tightened supervision on the security in and around kindergartens, an official from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, said on Friday.

Huang Haihua, spokesman for the NPC Standing Committee's Legislative Affairs Commission, told a news conference that giving stronger privacy protection for preschool children is planned to be added in a new version of the draft law that will be further reviewed by legislators next week.

Under the latest version of the draft preschool education law, kindergartens and related departments should handle children's personal information properly, with strong protection for their privacy and reputation, he said.

When reporting news involving preschool children, media also need to be cautious and avoid disclosing excessive or unnecessary details, he said, citing the draft law.

"Preschool children are the future and hope of a country. Safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of them is of great significance for their healthy growth and comprehensive development," he said.

He also stressed on giving respect and care to preschool children besides education, noting that the latest version of the draft law also requires cultural and patriotic institutes to introduce more welfare educational programs and services, giving free access to preschoolers in accordance with relevant regulations.

In addition, the draft law calls for establishing and improving the security risk prevention systems in kindergartens, so as to ensure the personal safety of preschool children, according to him.

The new version of the draft law is ready to be submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for a third review during a session, which is scheduled to be open in Beijing from Monday to Friday.

In China, draft laws or draft revisions to laws, in general, will become laws after they are reviewed three times by the NPC Standing Committee.

During the upcoming session, lawmakers will also review a draft energy law, a draft revision to the Law on Protection of Cultural Relics, a draft amendment to the Mineral Resources Law and a draft revision to the Anti-Money Laundering Law.

When it comes to cultural heritage preservation, Huang underlined the critical importance of balancing the conservation and development of cultural relics, saying that the draft revision to the Law on Protection of Cultural Relics has made some improvement on the issue.

For example, the protection of cultural relics must be given top priority in construction or tourism development under the draft revision, he said, adding that destructive development or excessive commercialization should be prevented.

"Measures for protecting cultural relics are also required to be strictly implemented while developing tourism in historical towns or ancient villages, and large-scale relocation in the process also needs to be controlled," he cited the draft revision as saying.

Furthermore, a number of reports, such as those on financial work, the management of State-owned assets, building world-class universities with Chinese characteristics and the prevention and control of desertification, are also ready to be discussed by lawmakers in the session.