DuPont grants child safety manual

To bolster the Ministry of Interior's "Children's Safety" activities, DuPont Taiwan yesterday released a children's safety Web site and manual.

DuPont pointed out that according to a research project conducted by ministry, 98 percent of Taiwanese think children's safety is important, but only 12 percent think the Taiwanese society is safe for children.

"Since safety management is one of DuPont's strong points, the corporation decides to help society improve the children's safety education," DuPont's public affairs manager Kathy Wang (王韻儀) said.

"The Web site and the manual are designed for children in elementary school, and they use a simple and fun way to guide children through different safety issues," she said.

Wang said that DuPont would distribute the manuals mostly to schools in non-urban areas, since a lot of city schools have a better understanding about safety, and also are more capable of accessing the Internet. Rural schools would need more help than city schools, she said.

The Chinese-language DuPont Kids Safety Web site (http://www.dupontkids.com.tw) investigates and discusses various safety issues.

The Web site mainly consists of flash animation, and it is based on several adventure stories to attract children's attention and teach them the importance of safety in various situations, such as how to handle fire, what to do during an earthquake and how to exercise caution on campus. There are also some Q&A activities to test children on their safety knowledge.

Two cartoon children characters, "Little Pont" and "Sister Safety," are used to look into safety issues from a child's point of view, and make safety issues easy to understand for the Web site's young visitors.

The manual explains safety issues in greater detail and it is also available for downloading from the Web site.

"Safety is one of DuPont's core values, and we hope to help promote the children's safety with our expertise in safety management," said Clint Huang (黃坤黃), president of DuPont Taiwan.

"It is the responsibility of the whole society to help children grow up in happiness and safety," Vice Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) said.

"It is most parents' hope to give their children a safe environment to live in, and it is also an important missions for the ministry," Chien said.

Chien said that the ministry has designated every July to September as Children's Safety Season because during the summer vacation children are prone to injury without the schools keeping an eye on them. This year the ministry will hold over 60 activities education children on different safety issues.