A slew of child injuries and deaths have prompted China to keep kids safer through legislation, government intervention and promotion of public awareness of minors' safety.

Child safety specialists believe many tragedies could be prevented if parents kept a closer eye on their children, and, if unattended children had been detected sooner.

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On parents' responsibilities:

The Youth Times

Commentator Si Hanhan

Many children’s accidents in China are caused by the negligence of the parents. In the US and Australia, parents who leave the baby alone at home or in the car will lose the custodial rights and be punished by the law. I hope the parents in China could learn a lesson from the case in Changchun.

On legal flaws:

Xinhua: 

Qin Qianhong, a law professor with Wuhan University in Central China's Hubei Province

"Serious child injuries caused by caregivers' neglect are on the rise these days. But our law has a blind spot on this issue.” 

"Laws should be made to clarify what guardians have to do - to stipulate, for example, that they cannot leave children under a certain age unattended," Qin said.

Legal commentator Fu Dalin 

The provision in the minors' protection law that allows removal of guardianship by courts in case of dereliction of duty needs more detail to become workable.

"The article doesn't specify who can petition for such removal, in what situations the removal should be filed for, and what would happen to the child after the change of guardianship," said Fu.

Tong Zongjin, associate professor of China University of Political Science and Law, commented on Sina Weibo

China lacks a legal basis for penalizing parental negligence at present.

On government intervention:

 Xinhua: 

Jolanda Van Westering, Chief of Child Protection with UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) China

Besides guardianship and emergency removal of custody, the duty of the state to protect children from harms such as neglect, maltreatment and sexual abuse should also be stipulated in the law.

"There can be some basic duties of caregivers in laws, but that needs to be balanced with the duty of the state, which should enable parents to protect their children," Van Westering said, referring to parents who have difficulty in handling various forms of stress in life and therefore fail to take good care of their children.
Guangzhou Daily:

Despite improving the legislation to make current regulations more practical, we also need to set up relevant welfare and aid systems and public service organizations to provide more care for kids.

UNICEF	UNICEF took the lead by launching the Child Friendly Space (CFS) project in 2008, which has been rapidly expanded with the government's active engagement, according to Van Westering, Chief of Child Protection with UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) China. The CFS provides children with a safe place to play, to know each other and to have early childhood education, she said, adding the 21 UNICEF-funded centers in 10 provinces had benefited 300,000 children.
Ministry of Civil Affairs	In May, the Ministry of Civil Affairs ordered 20 pilot regions across the country to build community-based safety nets for vulnerable minors, specifically vagrants, school dropouts and those left unattended. The regions were also required to set up an effective mechanism to detect, report and respond to injuries to children.
Social organizations	Social organizations are encouraged to apply for the government purchased minors protection projects, with a maximum budget of 300,000 yuan each, to provide shelter and counseling services to children at risk, according to a circular issued by Beijing's municipal bureau of civil affairs on September 2.

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