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Parents of minors in China will soon be held accountable for their child's behaviour in a new law to be reviewed this week.

Parents or guardians will be reprimanded and ordered to go through family education guidance programmes if prosecutors find that children under their care display bad or criminal behaviour, reported Reuters.

Parents will also be punished by authorities if their child commits a crime below the legal age, which is 16, for most offences, according to USA Today.

This was revealed in the draft of the Family Education Promotion Law.

"There are many reasons for adolescents to misbehave, and the lack of or inappropriate family education is the major cause," said Zang Tiewei, spokesman of the Legislative Affairs Commission under the National People's Congress.

Family education

Under the draft, parents or guardians of minors are "the entities responsible for implementing family education".

Parents should teach their children "to love the party, nation, people, and socialism; to obey social mores; to strengthen legal awareness and a sense of social responsibility; to establish the concepts of national unification and ethnic unity; and teaching minors to respect the elderly and care for the young".

The draft also urged parents to schedule time for their children to rest, play, and exercise, inculcating better physical and psychological development for minors.

In July this year, tuition companies in China were forced by the Chinese government to go non-profit, which was aimed at reducing stress among schoolchildren and easing the financial burden on parents in order to boost declining birth rates.

The number of gaming hours for minors has been limited, allowing them to play online games for one hour on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday only.

If parents violate an order to participate in family education, they will be issued a warning and a corrective order.

And if they refuse correction, they may face a fine of up to 1,000 yuan (S$210), or serve detention for up to five days, depending on the severity of offences, the law states.

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