Study On The Protection Of Privacy Of Minor Victims

China’s criminal procedure law tends to protect minor defendants,while there is a lack of corresponding protection for minor victims as the direct victims of crime.With the increase in human rights awareness and the frequent occurrence of juvenile victimisation cases in recent years,both academic and practical circles have paid attention to the protection of juvenile victims,and the protection of private information,which is directly related to the safety of juvenile victims,has become particularly prominent and important.However,China’s criminal procedure law does not guarantee the right to privacy as a basic procedural right,and therefore many problems have arisen in judicial practice.An analysis of the current situation of the protection of minor victims shows that there are problems mainly in the following areas.Firstly,in terms of questioning and evidence collection.One-stop forensics has been very effective and has reduced the risk of disclosure of the privacy of minor victims.However,in many backward and remote areas,one-stop depositions are not widely available,so there are still situations where the privacy of minor victims is violated.At the same time,the lack of specific guidelines for interviewing minor victims has increased the possibility of violating the privacy of minor victims by repeatedly taking evidence and asking about irrelevant content.Secondly,the lack of awareness of the concept of protecting the privacy rights of minor victims by the relevant authorities has led to inadequate legal publicity on the protection of privacy rights and the lack of timely supervision of the internet,which have increased the risk of disclosure of the privacy rights of minor victims.Thirdly,although the judicial authorities have made great efforts to protect the privacy rights of minor victims,the dissemination of information on cases can still result in the disclosure of relevant private information.For example,lawyers involved in litigation have been spreading private information about minor victims on social media outside of court,and the news media has not made provisions for privacy protection when reporting on cases.Therefore,it is necessary to propose specific measures to address the various problems in the protection of the privacy rights of juvenile victims.Firstly,the protection of privacy should be established as an independent protection clause,and on this basis,the relevant legislation on the protection of the privacy of juvenile victims should be improved to establish the scope of the subject of obligation and the content of the protection of privacy,so as to protect the privacy of juvenile victims in a comprehensive and systematic manner.Secondly,the protection of the privacy rights of minor victims will be fully covered at the litigation stage.In the investigation stage,one-stop evidence collection will be spread from pilot to the whole country,especially in backward and remote areas,so as to strengthen the protection of the privacy rights of minor victims.At the same time,publicity on privacy protection should be stepped up in all regions,especially in key areas such as communities and schools,calling for the protection of privacy while not freely distributing videos and photos about minors.The authorities concerned should even carry out timely internet supervision and cut off links to videos and photos in a timely manner to eliminate distribution at source.At the trial stage,training on professional ethics for lawyers should be strengthened and lawyers should be required by law to fulfil their obligation to protect the right to privacy.At the same time,suitable adults participating in the proceedings must also fulfil their obligation to protect privacy.