It is heartrending to see the posts some netizens posted on social media exposing the treatment endured by a 6-year-old girl in Fushun, Liaoning province, who was tortured by her divorced mother and her mother's partner with pliers, boiling water, fire and needles for months.

The provincial public security and judicial departments have said an investigation is underway and the two adults will receive the severest punishment possible if the posts prove true.

This is all too familiar. In April, a four-year-old girl was rushed to the intensive care unit of a local hospital in Jiansanjiang, Heilongjiang province, after being beaten by her divorced father's partner, and it was the doctors treating her that contacted the police as they knew the girl's injuries could not have been caused by an "accidental fall", as her father claimed.

True, the legislators have constantly revised the minors protection law to fit the fast developing social landscape－divorce is more common than before－and judicial authorities have also strengthened their screening of those acting as the guardians of minors, for instance drug addicts, alcoholics, gamblers and those having other certain bad records, are prohibited from being guardians.

But as the aforementioned two cases show, neither the Law on the Protection of Minors nor the judicial authorities' resolve to take better care of children has worked in the first place to prevent such tragedies from happening.

It is believed that as well as the ones that are reported many other children are abused.

Although the sub-district office, villagers' committee and neighborhood community are supposedly to act as radars detecting any abuse of minors, none of them is legally bound to do it. Children deserve better protection from the people closest to them, and that can only come from those around them such as neighbors or those in communities, who should have a legal obligation to report to the police any incidences of children being ill-treated by their parents or guardians.

— LI YANG, CHINA DAILY