A dispute broke out in a restaurant in Hunan, China. A 4-year-old boy was running down the aisle with a toy gun when his hand brushed against the buttocks of a female customer. The woman became furious and believed that he had been "indecently assaulted and sexually harassed." After Shen Rongqin, an associate professor at York University in Canada, retweeted the case, it sparked a heated debate among netizens on both sides of the Taiwan Strait over "excessive rights protection" and "child discipline."
The incident occurred in a restaurant in Hunan. The boy was running and playing in the aisle with a toy gun, while his parents were dining nearby without restraint. During this period, a female customer felt her buttocks was touched. She turned around and saw that it was a running boy. She immediately yelled and quickly caught up to him and grabbed the boy by the collar. The boy was so frightened that he cried on the spot. His parents heard the noise and rushed over, and a fierce argument broke out between them.
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The female customer claimed that the boy deliberately touched his buttocks, which constituted obscenity and sexual harassment. She strongly demanded that the parents apologize in person or upload a video of the apology, and promised in black and white to strengthen discipline. The boy's parents countered that the child was only 4 years old and that the contact was purely accidental and not intentional while running across the aisle. The parents were even more distressed by the accusation that the woman roughly pulled the collar and strangled the child's neck, causing obvious strangulation marks and bruises on the boy's neck. They demanded that the woman also apologize, but the woman argued that the injuries were not intentional and refused to apologize.
After reviewing the restaurant's surveillance video, it was confirmed that the boy's hand did touch the woman's buttocks while running, and the woman insisted that this was irrefutable evidence of sexual harassment. Relevant local authorities intervened in mediation three times but failed. Although the boy's parents backed down, expressed regret and paid for the medical expenses, the woman still refused to give up and formally filed a sexual harassment lawsuit with the court against the 4-year-old boy, claiming that she wanted the child to learn a lesson in court.
The woman later made a video on Douyin crying that she was a victim. She also showed her smart watch that her heart rate soared to 120 beats per minute to prove her panic. However, her account was officially banned soon after. The media further investigated and discovered that the woman often had conflicts with others in the community, ranging from the school dormitory manager and Didi driver to the 4-year-old boy, always shouting "No compromise in protecting rights."
This farce of a 4-year-old child being accused of sexual harassment has attracted a lot of criticism from Chinese netizens. They all sympathized with the boy, pointing out that "the little boy ran to the passage and it happened to be a bit crowded. He just pushed the obstacle with both hands." "And in the original video, the child also said, "Hello, give way." "Watching the video, you can see that the child did not mean it. Anyone with children at home knows that it is normal for children to run and jump." However, some netizens reminded that parents do lack discipline when they allow young children to run rampant in public places. If they can sincerely apologize as soon as possible, the situation may not get out of hand and turn into a courtroom farce.
This incident also attracted the attention of Taiwanese netizens. "In a very violent society, people who are dissatisfied with the Communist Party do not dare to vent their anger, so they have to take out their anger on others. It is sad." "Parents only care about their own meals and let their children play in the restaurant. They don't care whether it causes trouble to others. If an accident occurs, will the restaurant be held responsible for compensation? It is daily life in China. Protecting one's own rights is an advanced country. It’s a basic attitude, but to grab a child because of a collision and cause minor injuries? It’s too exaggerated.” “I support the woman’s lawsuit, because in China, these naughty children are allowed to run around in public places in restaurants without supervision, and they let their children play tablet games loudly on the high-speed train, and then wait for the child to cause trouble and sue the restaurant and unlucky passers-by.”
