Some 57 percent of children and 58 percent of parents
participating in a recent survey said they regarded traffic
accidents as the top threat to the safety of children and
teenagers.
The survey was completed in late September jointly by the
Communist Youth League of China, National Children's Work
Coordinating Committee, Ministry of Education and Ministry of
Public Security.
The survey sampled more than 10,000 minors and their parents in
nine Chinese cities including Beijing and Guangzhou, capital of
south China's Guangdong Province.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, the country
reported 448,535 traffic accidents in the first eight months of
this year, resulting in 66,180 deaths and 330,331 injuries.
In the survey, 18.99 percent of children and 25.28 percent of
parents were worried about being robbed on the way to school or
back home, ranking second in the list of dangers.
Being injured in sports activities, food poisoning, electrical
shock and drowning were also among the major threats to the lives
and safety of the underage, the survey showed.
And 6.19 percent of the parents surveyed were worried about
dangers from the Internet.
Research showed that half of the deaths of Chinese children were
caused by accidents like asphyxiating, drowning, traffic accidents,
falls and poisoning.
When answering a multiple choice question on how they learnt to
protect themselves, 62.41 percent of children said at school and
58.87 percent said from their parents, but still 1.8 percent said
they were never taught anything.
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2003)