China Seeks to Prevent Sealed Juvenile Criminal Records From Being Leaked

China’s top authorities have issued guidelines to unify the country’s decade-old, scattered, vague rules on sealing juvenile criminal records to solve the recurrent problem of the leaking of such records which hinders offenders’ rehabilitation.

All documents on juvenile criminal cases should be sealed before the end of proceedings, as should those involving minors who are sentenced to less than five years in prison or exempt from criminal punishment, according to the guidelines (link in Chinese) which went into effect Monday when they were made public.