Objective A child safety seat is an effective measure to reduce the risk of child injury from traffic collisions. This study aims investigate the knowledge, attitude and the use (KAP) of child safety seats of 4˜6 year old parents in Nanshan District in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.

Methods A cross-sectional survey regarding child safety seat use was conducted in April 2014 in Nanshan District, Shenzhen municipality. A total of 8 kindergartens in Nanshan District were selected by cluster sampling, and 1833 parents of 4˜6 year old children were investigated by questionnaires.

Results A total of 1833 parents of 4˜6 year olds were surveyed, including 654 males and 1179 females. The average age was 35.53 (±3.99) years. About 98.04% of respondents have heard of child safety seats before. The right knowledge rate of children’s safety seats was 55.94%. The lower the parents’ educational level and the lower their monthly income, the lower their parents’ awareness of child safety seat knowledge. The car seat safety rate is 27.11% and the utilization rate is 14.02%. The top four reasons for not buying child safety seats are children’s few opportunities to travel, seat occupancy, seat installation trouble and seat price is too high.

Conclusions The purchase and use rates of child safety seats are low in Nanshan District. It is necessary to take actions to guide the parents to choose and use the child safety seat correctly.