Innocence no protection from evil

A consumer checks self-defence products online. Glare flashlights are among the most popular products.[Photo by Meng Delong/For China Daily]

Booming business

Many other young women, too, have purchased similar protection devices, helping shoot up their sales in the first week of September when many universities started their new semester.

The taobao trend index shows that, in the month until Sept 6, sales of self-defense devices increased 15 times year-on-year, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The owner of a shop on taobao.com says glare flashlights, which can stretch out like a stick, are among the most popular products.

More than 400 have been sold, mostly to women in big cities, he says.

The glare flashlights cost between 33 yuan ($5.4) and 700 yuan, depending on their functions.

Apart from the glare flashlights, many other protection and self-defense devices, such as small alarms, pepper sprays and specially designed sharp pens, have become hot selling items, with their prices ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan. And to meet the aesthetic needs of women, some of the devices come with appealing designs - in the shape of the heart or beetle - and colors.