Wang Zhenyan ( opinion. southcn. com):

It is unreasonable that parents are not held legally liable just because they are the parents of the victims. More importantly, custodial negligence has already become a big “killer.” From the perspective of child protection, it’s high time to criminalize custodial negligence that leads to serious injuries and even deaths.

The fundamental reason for such negligence is the lack of a sense of responsibility on the part of certain parents. Some parents are too careless to notice danger approaching their children, some believe they can always escape such incidents by chance and some may have done something wrong. All these have led to grave results.

Certain parents have not paid sufficient attention to child safety, and the lack of legal punishment is making the situation even more unfavorable to vulnerable young children. Imposing criminal liability on such parents will deter them from being so casual about child safety.

In some extreme cases, some couples may vent anger at their children, causing harm or even deaths. The adults tend to disguise such cases as “negligence” and they can be exempted from being thrown behind bars. Therefore, in view of loopholes in our current legal system, it is necessary to criminalize custodial negligence for the sake of child safety.

Entire society should take action