Police, parents and schools should be more concerned about triad activity among primary and secondary students, a political party has said.
The call from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong came after a survey found about one in five students said their schoolmates had claimed to be triad members and almost a quarter said they or friends had been asked to join a gang.
Loretta Lo Yee-hang, a deputy security spokesman for the party, said even though there were not a lot of children being bothered by gangs, there should be concern if there was just a single case.
'Those who claim to be a triad member may just be doing it for fun,' she said, adding that this was a criminal breach of the law.
For the poll, 524 students from Primary Four to Form Seven and 164 parents were randomly surveyed by telephone from May 26 to 31.
Of the student respondents, 21.8 per cent said schoolmates had claimed to be triad members, while 24.6 per cent said attempts had been made to recruit them or their friends into triad societies.