Facing a rising crisis of children's welfare in its vast and poor rural areas, China has issued a set of guidelines aimed at protecting children left behind by parents who work away from home to make more money.
The government's message to millions of migrant workers: Take your children with you to the cities if you can and, at the very least, check on them regularly if you have to leave them behind.
Beijing also requested rural officials to keep track of left-behind children by setting up files, visiting them at home and making sure their parents talk to them via phone or video chat.
The new guidelines come at a time of rapid urbanization in China, with an estimated 100 million people expected to move from the countryside to towns and cities.
Most migrant workers leave their kids at home because a rigid household registration system -- called hukou -- means the children are often denied education and health care in the cities.