The Regulation on Administration of Child Welfare Institutions came into effect on Jan 1. It is China's first management regulation for child welfare agencies.

According to the regulation children without legal guardians, children whose parents lack the capacity to be guardians, children whose legal guardians are court-appointed civil administration departments and children under the age of 16 that are with special difficulty and who need centralized care can be taken in by child welfare institutions. At the same time, for children over the age of 6, the welfare institutions must have separate living areas for boys and girls, and girls must receive care services from female staff.

The document also requires child welfare institutions to set up video monitoring systems with memory functions in passageways, corridors, dining halls, observation room and education region, and the child welfare institutions should keep the video recordings for at least three months.

And, each child welfare institution should implement 24-hour patrols, and establish personal archives for all the children in their care.