On December 27, the Bao’an branch of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau (PSB) announced that they had imposed ‘compulsory administrative measures’ against a couple who had been abusing their eight-year-old daughter for months over trivial matters.
The announcement came after a video showing a girl being violently abused by her parents went viral online on December 22. Since its release, the footage has sparked widespread outrage on the Internet.
In one clip, for seemingly no reason at all, the mother grabs the girl’s hair while she is eating, and drags her violently to the floor. In another, a man wearing a Meituan food delivery uniform slaps the girl in the face. Other footage shows a young boy – allegedly the victim’s brother – antagonizing her. In all of the clips, the girl does not duck or dodge the attacks.
Watch clips of the abuse below, although we advise viewer discretion.
Image via Sohu.com
Image via Sohu.com
Image via Sohu.com
One day after the video was published online, on December 23, the publicity department of Bao’an District Committee published a Weibo post announcing that the girl’s 34-year-old father, surnamed Liu, as well as her 33-year-old mother, surnamed Chen, were detained by police as part of an investigation into the footage. Both of them admitted to mistreating their daughter.
The deeply troubling footage of the abuse was a compilation of clips that were captured between September 26 and October 20. If you’re wondering how on earth the footage was captured in the family’s home and released on the Internet, let us tell you it is quite a story. According to the PSB announcement, a man surnamed Wang, along with an accomplice identified as Zhong, somehow managed to obtain access to a surveillance camera installed by the abusive parents in order to monitor their children. The duo then collected the videos and published them online.
Unfortunately for Wang and Zhong, the PSB did not look kindly on their intrusive actions, and both received punishment for illegally accessing the family’s in-home surveillance system and for publishing videos of the family’s private life.
As for the young girl in the videos, she has been seeing a counselor since her situation was brought to light and is in good health. She has since returned to school and will likely be put under a protective order, which has already been applied for in court by the Women’s Federation in Bao’an District.
Netizens have been extremely vocal about their contempt for the girl’s abusive parents, while also showing compassion for the mistreated youngster. One Weibo user wrote, “If possible, please deprive the parents of their right to raise the girl, who would be better off being fostered or living at a charity house than being around those devils.”
Bao Bei’er, a Chinese actor and film director with more than 12 million followers on Weibo, expressed his willingness to adopt the child in a Weibo repost, writing, “I’m applying to adopt the girl in my real name.”
[Cover image: screengrab via @猪脸/Weibo]
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