OpinionMainland Chinese parents need to factor children's safety into responsibilities
Food, clothing, shelter, education seen as their responsibilities, but it doesn't occur to them to protect children from harm or warn of risks
Mainland parents are known to attach the utmost importance to their children's academic achievements, but the safety of their offspring is often the last thing on their mind.
In the light of recent tragedies in Shanghai - involving the death of three minors and the injury of three others - parents would do well to revise this thinking.
The accidents - all the result of parental negligence - have clearly demonstrated loopholes in laws, social support networks and public awareness regarding how to keep children safe from inevitable accidents.
In response, the Shanghai Women's Federation, a quasi-governmental body, said it would distribute a manual on children's safety to parents through community service centres across the city over the next couple of weeks.
Starting this month, the federation also began posting regular tips on protecting children from danger on its microblog site, and said paying attention to children's safety is a "compulsory course" for parents.
The summer holiday is peak season for tragedies involving children. Each summer some 20 children die in accidents, far more than at other periods of the year, according to the Municipal Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.