This summer, an overwhelming number of news reports covered the same heartbreaking story—— children left to suffer in cars in China. Some of them were fortunate enough to be rescued by observant passers-by after a few hours in scorching heat, but other poor innocent souls did not have the chance to see their parents one last time. Just in July, 12 children perished because of careless guardians. It is a warning to the public to take immediate action to figure out effective solutions to the issue.

Undoubtedly, these tragedies can only be directly caused by parents’ negligence and yet the parents are reported to deeply regret what they deem “careless mistakes”. However, legally, this is defined as parental negligence, which is a crime. This may sound distant to us but it does occur quite frequently in our daily lives. Other common examples of parental negligence include putting medicine in places children can reach, ignoring children while concentrating on mobile phones and placing children in the car without seatbelts. All of these examples seem insignificant but bring unimaginable consequences. A statistics show that every sixteen minutes, a child dies because of parental negligence. This reveals the public’s lack of awareness of child safety, and the need for urgent solutions.

To better address this problem, we must get past the appearance of unintentional accidents and find the root cause of the issue. The primary action we need to take is to “name and shame” distinctively and raise social awareness on child safety. Some people believe that such incidents are already miserable enough for the parents involved so the society should not hold them accountable by adding sadness and pressure on them. Although these negligent parents appear like victims themselves, they should own the responsibility of taking mindful care of their children. Especially when the matter could be life-threatening, parents have no excuse for being distracted by trifling things. Indeed, they are criminals guilty of manslaughter. To increase social awareness, the media can provide aid, including educational programs, interviews, films and other related measures. I suggest TV public service announcements as a significant method of publicity as audiences are able to visually recognize the potential danger, and empathize with a child exposed to such a threat.

Public awareness is far not enough to reduce the death rate to a fair extent, which requests the government to regulate. It has already been written in the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors that guardians shall not mistreat or forsake minors. This holds China accountable for guaranteeing the safety of juveniles. However, what we observe is the fact that hardly any negligent parents are penalized, even if the tragedy is avoidable. It is actually due to the Chinese cultural context where parents are usually protected at all costs. However, frequent accidents remind us that we cannot put up with the situation any longer. In fact, strict enforcement has witnessed a positive outcome in western countries. In 2014, Seth Jackson caused his son to stifle to death in a car in Texas, USA, which led to a charge of first degree murder. Because of the justice system, American society is deterred or at least parents are warned that severe punishment awaits such negligence. This will prompt parents to be more cautious in the future.

It is not only that parent should be educated, but that children should be made aware of the risks of remaining in a vehicle alone. Although children may be too young to understand the situation they are, regular reminders will greatly impress upon them. To a great extent, this responsibility of education lies on schools if parents are unable to perform their parental duties fully. The education bureau can organize activities related to prevention of parental negligence in classrooms, having parents attend with their children so that both can better understand the consequences.

Overall, it is evident that negligent parents ought to be punished according to the law so that accidents are reduced on the parents’ side. Moreover, child safety education and awareness is necessary to avoid further incidents. For the good of all, the public has to view negligent parents not as victims but criminals and to take firm action to resolve the issue.