New measures designed to ensure that records of juvenile delinquencies are kept confidential issued on May 30, 2022 will better protect juvenile delinquents from social discrimination by sealing their criminal records more strictly. According to the measures, records for adolescent delinquents who did not receive a criminal conviction or who had a penalty of less than five years in custody should be physically sealed and online records encrypted. Government statistics show that from April 2017 to April 2022, more than 80,000 juvenile delinquents nationwide were not prosecuted and 150,000 juvenile delinquents were sentenced to up to five years in custody. China’s top prosecutor said that confidential files are leaked through unsealed documents, unfiltered search procedures and slack online monitoring. The window of opportunity should not be closed to young people who committed offenses recklessly, nor should they be denied access to higher education entrance exams or the job market.
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