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)