A public-service announcement has been issued by the nation's public health authorities to help protect children — particularly in rural areas — from traffic dangers.

The PSA, which lasts about 20 minutes, will be distributed to various media outlets and educational institutions across the country to spread the road-safety message among children, said Wang Linhong of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"As the economy booms, traffic mishaps have become one of the major public-health issues in China. It ranks second among all killers of children," she said at the launch of the PSA in Beijing on Monday.

Children are particularly susceptible to the dangers posed by motor vehicles. Worldwide, some 21 percent of road accidents involve children, Wang said.

In China, more than 3,000 children died in traffic mishaps in 2012, while another 13,700 were injured, statistics from the CDC showed. Children in rural areas were involved more than their urban counterparts.

"The PSA aims to help empower the children, the parents, and other caretakers so that road safety risks can be averted," she said.

The PSA is practical and takes into account the special needs of rural children. "For instance, the major transportation in rural areas might vary from that in urban settings," she said.

The PSA is being released now, she said, because road accidents involving children usually increase during the summer holidays.