Cruel Summer

Eight-year-old twins from Beijing drowned during a seaside vacation in Qingdao, Shandong Province while their mother was distracted by her cellphone. According to media reports, the girls were taken to the beach by their mother on August 5, and while she was checking her phone, she lost sight of her daughters. Many netizens attributed the tragedy to the mothers’ failure to care for her daughters, though others found it too cruel to pile blame on to the inconsolable mother. This summer, many children have lost their lives due to their parents’ carelessness – incidents include children being forgotten in locked cars, drowned in bodies of water where there was no supervision, or being involved in road traffic accidents while unsupervised by their parents. Some people have called for legislation to penalize parents who fail in their duty to protect their children.