When does the Youth Protection Act apply?
The Youth Protection Act applies to exceptional situations when a child’s safety or development can be considered endangered because the child’s most basic needs are not minimally met.
Any person who is aware of such a situation can file a report with the DYP.
However, in the case of physical or sexual abuse, they are obliged to file a report without delay. Professionals are required to report all suspected cases of abuse.
→ 
Filing a report with the DYP is already protecting a child - When and how to file a report?
Confidentiality of the person filing a report
The identity of the person filing a report is strictly confidential and is never shared, without their authorisation, with the persons concerned in the report. For a child residing in the Laurentians, the number to call (toll-free) to report the child’s situation is the following: 1-800 361-8665.
Grounds for filing a report
Abandonment
When the parents of a child are deceased or do not in fact fulfill their responsibilities for the child’s care or education and when, in both situations, those responsibilities are not fulfilled by another person.
Neglect
1. When a child’s parents or a child’s caregiver fail to meet the child’s basic needs:
- either their physical needs, by failing to provide for their food, clothing, hygiene or housing needs, given their resources;
- or their health needs, by failing to provide or to allow them to receive the care required for their physical or mental health;
- or their educational needs, by failing to provide oversight or appropriate supervision or to take the necessary means to ensure their schooling.
2. When there is a serious risk that a child’s parents or caregiver fail to meet their basic needs.
Psychological ill-treatment
When the child is seriously or consistently subjected by the parents or another person to types of conduct liable to cause harm, and when the parents fail to take the necessary means to put an end to the situation.
These types of conduct notably include indifference, denigration, emotional withdrawal, isolation, threats, exploitation, including if the child is forced to do disproportionate work relative to the child’s capacities, or if the child is subjected to excessive control, or exposure to conjugal or domestic violence.
Sexual abuse
When the child is subjected to acts of a sexual nature, with or without physical contact, by the parents or by another person, and when the parents fail to take the necessary means to put an end to the situation.
When the child runs a serious risk of being subjected to acts of a sexual nature, with or without physical contact, by the parents or by another person, and when the parents fail to take the necessary means to put an end to the situation.
Physical abuse
When a child is subjected to physical abuse or is subjected to unreasonable educational methods by the parents, or by another person, and when the parents fail to take the necessary means to put an end to the situation.
When the child runs a serious risk of being subjected to physical abuse or of being subjected to unreasonable education methods by the parents or by another person, and when the parents fail to take the necessary means to put an end to the situation.
Serious behavioural disorders
When a child behaves in such a way as to seriously or repeatedly undermine their or other’s physical or psychological integrity and when the parents fail to take the necessary means to put an end to the situation or when the child over 14 years of age opposes them.