The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said Wednesday it has newly added around 2,300 facilities, including welfare centers for adolescents and support centers for multicultural families, to the list of places banned from hiring people convicted of sexual crimes.
The ministry announced the addition as part of a revision of the Child Sexual Offenses Act, set to go into effect starting Thursday.
The current law stipulates that sexual offenders can be banned from working at child-related facilities for up to 10 years. It also requires employers at these institutions to conduct background checks before hiring.
A total of 81 ex-convicts of sexual crimes were found to be working at nearly 540,000 child-related institutions last year.
The ministry said it has also increased the number of child-protection facilities to be notified of the personal information of sex offenders who reside nearby.
The revised bill will obligate providers of daycare services to report on sexual crimes that occurred in the workplace, with violators who commit them in the designated facilities facing aggravated punishment.
Source: Yonhap News Agency