Special Feature - BTHA Safety Campaign

BTHA launches latest report

The shocking new 39-page report shows that despite years of campaigning and government lobbying, online marketplaces and third-party sellers are still getting away with selling dangerous toys. The British Toy and Hobby Association is calling on manufacturers, distributors, retailers and consumers to throw their weight behind its latest Don’t Toy with Children’s Safety campaign, which aims to crack down on online marketplaces before more children are hurt. Toy World finds out more.

In June 2019, following work carried out in 2018, the British Toy and Hobby Association launched a campaign - Don’t Toy with Children’s Safety - calling for action from the government to ensure unsafe toys are removed from the market. The campaign followed the publication of a study conducted across online platforms which found that, at the time, 58% of toys selected for assessment were noncompliant with toy safety regulations in the UK, and 22% demonstrated serious safety issues. The first report was followed by a second, released in October 2020, that aimed to raise this issue with more consumers, regulators and platforms.

A little over two years later, the BTHA has now released the findings of a 2021 online marketplace toy safety investigation, showing that, sadly, very little has changed: 255 toys sold on Amazon, eBay, AliExpress and Wish were randomly selected, inspected and tested this time, with a whopping 88% found to be illegal and 48% unsafe for a child to play with. The resultant injuries that could have been caused by the unsafe and non-compliant toys ranged from choking and strangulation, damage to sight or hearing, burns, chemical poisoning and electric shocks, and injuries that would require surgical intervention, such as the removal of coin cell batteries from a child’s throat.

The statistics are laid out in the BTHA’s latest report – appropriately named ‘Still Toying with Children’s Safety’ – a damning 39-page document which lays bare the breadth and depth of the issue. As explained within the report, UK retailers have responsibilities, defined in the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011, to check that the manufacturers of the toys they sell have made safe toys or labelled them correctly, and to act immediately should a product be found to have a safety issue. Manufacturers based outside the UK must add their address and company details, thus taking on the role of an importer under the Regulations, which have more detailed obligations. However, as it stands, online marketplace platforms are not classed as being either retailers or importers in the UK’s current economic operator model – simply the platform through which a sale is made. Ultimately, in many cases no checks are being made at all before consumers receive products, and in the case of toys, given to a young child.

If a safety issue occurs after a product reaches the traditional retail market, Trading Standards officers are able to monitor and find unsafe items, and work with the retailer to remove them from sale. In cases where there is a danger, they can also initiate a recall, so consumers know they are unsafe and can return them. But many third-party sellers are based overseas, outside the jurisdiction of UK Trading Standards, and therefore unenforceable under UK law, as are some platforms themselves. It is too late for effective action to be taken only after the illegal and unsafe toys find their way into children’s hands and are identified.

Currently, online marketplaces that allow thirdparties to sell products through their platforms have limited insight into (or incentive to monitor) the quality and safety of those products because of the current lack of legal accountability. Consequently, there are no systematic changes being made proactively, by government or online marketplaces, to ensure unsafe products do not make it into the hands of children. Instead, it is left to the platforms to voluntarily make changes – if they choose to do so. The BTHA is therefore urging the government to take action to protect children from the threat of physical harm by taking steps to prevent the sale of unsafe toys on online platforms, and by making the online marketplaces take some accountability for the products sold through their platforms by third-party sellers.

Members of the BTHA are committed to making legally compliant, good quality toys for children to play with. Toys is already one of the most highly regulated product categories in the UK, and across Europe, and regulations cover every element of the toy, from the physical properties of the toy design to the chemical composition of materials. Making toys to these demanding standards is a legal requirement every member of the BTHA is committed to undertake, but it does come at a considerable expense - and there are unscrupulous sellers which are happy to undercut prices by making substandard and illegal toys.

In an official statement, Natasha Crookes, director of Public Affairs for the BTHA, said: “It is not acceptable that unsafe and non-compliant toys are simply allowed to enter the UK market, putting children at risk of serious harm. We believe the government has to step in to legislate this wild-west of safety, and that we must see politicians from all sides of the house coming together to protect children as part of the UK review of the product safety framework in 2021.” Among those working closely with the BTHA on the campaign is Sam McCarthy, mother of Rebecca (Becca) McCarthy. Earlier this year, Becca was left critically injured after swallowing 14 magnets, bought from eBay for an older sibling, that she mistook for sweets. The magnets ultimately ruptured Becca’s intestines in three places, and she had to undergo emergency lifesaving surgery at the Royal London Hospital. Although Becca has made an excellent recovery, the episode has had a lasting impact on her entire family. “I refuse to have any magnets in my house to this day, no matter the size,” Sam explained in an impact statement. “I’m scared to purchase things, and my 14-year-old and 10-year-old are fearful about playing with toys, in case they could kill their baby sister. Myself and my family are not looking for someone to blame. We just want to raise awareness about the dangers of buying unsafe toys from third party sellers on online marketplaces and campaign for the law to change so that children and their families are better protected – and so that children can play safely, and no other parents have to experience what we did.”

Becca’s story highlights not only the importance of buying toys from reputable sellers, but also of being aware that even though such products may appear in viral videos on social media alongside kids, magnets in and of themselves are not toys. Of course, magnets are often used within toys for products such as construction sets, and as long as the manufacturer adheres to all necessary testing and compliance requirements, they are completely safe. Unfortunately, when buying from an online marketplace, many parents may struggle to differentiate between a safe toy and an unsafe one – or even something that shouldn’t be considered a toy at all - with potentially devastating consequences. The BTHA’s Still Toying with Children’s Safety report found that many magnetic ‘toys’ sold online on third-party marketplaces don’t comply with the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011 as they have magnets that can come loose, meaning what happened to Becca could happen to another child, even though their parent or grandparent believed they were buying a safe toy.

While clearly a concern for parents, the issue is also a major bugbear for the many companies who have built their businesses upon the production of safe magnetic toys. Toy safety testing is laborious and expensive, yet necessary, and reputable toymakers are happy to pay for the process, but it is then galling for them to see rogue companies or online platforms freely allowing the sale of untested, unsafe magnetic products destined to end up in the hands of kids. "As a member of the BTHA Committee and its Public Affairs Committee, I have been closely involved with the compilation of this report,” Clive Wooster, MD of the reputable and highly respected market-leading magnetic toy specialist Geomagworld, explains. “It’s crucial that unregulated magnetic toys are not allowed to be sold online or anywhere else. I know the lengths and expense that Geomagworld goes to when ensuring our products are safe. Our key safeguards mean that our Spheres are not magnetic - rather the rods connecting them are - and these pass the small parts test. This is a much more expensive process, but it means we have 100% confidence in their safety."

In addition to working with figures from across the industry, consumers, toy safety specialists and action groups, the BTHA is further bolstering the findings of the new report with the results of its ‘Still on Sale’ investigation, which has looked into which unsafe toys reported to the marketplaces in question are still available for purchase. An online hashtag movement has also been created to coincide with the findings of the report, with a call to action that will hopefully incite concerned parents to visit the new microsite, www. toysafety.co.uk, and sign a petition to put pressure on the government to change the law. And it’s not just parents who should be getting involved – all Toy World readers are urged to visit the new website and sign the petition. If 100k signatures can be collected, the matter will be raised in parliament. Your support is vital to ensuring this happens. The microsite also hosts a new video, in which Natasha, Jerry Burnie (head of Technical Compliance at the BTHA) and Sam McCarthy, Becca’s mum, outline the findings of the report. People who want to support the campaign will be provided with a template letter they can send to their local MP. Natasha will also be meeting multiple MPs over the coming weeks to ask if they will sponsor an Early Day Motion (EDM), a motion tabled by Members of Parliament that formally calls for a debate on a particular topic.

“If ever there was a time to get behind our campaign, this is it,” Natasha told Toy World. “Earlier in the year, the government put out a Call for Evidence on the future of product safety in the UK. We sent a 40+ page response, and the outcome of it is due any day. This discussion is so relevant right now; if we could solve the issue of safety surrounding products bought online, the UK would have a stronger safety regime than it has done for years. Online safety is what people consistently say must change, so getting involved right now, signing our petition and speaking to your MP, couldn’t be timelier. The UK now has the sovereign power to change its laws, when before it had to go through the European Union, meaning real, tangible change can finally be enacted.”

A key campaign message, the BTHA is asking Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to ‘Build Back Safer’, a playful riff on the Build Back Better slogan adopted by the Conservatives in the wake of the pandemic. In the organisation’s view, the most straightforward way to improve accountability for the products purchased on platforms would be to strengthen consumers’ rights - to bring private law actions against the online marketplaces that toys have been purchased from, and to place the burden on pursuing enforcement actions against third-party sellers on the online marketplaces rather than on consumers. Given the slow speed with which online marketplaces have been willing to act to remove unsafe products, and the limitations in the voluntary remedial schemes they have established, legislation will be required to effect meaningful change. Such legislation would provide consumers with routes of redress that are clearly defined, and actionable in practice, if harm is suffered because of illegal and/or unsafe toys purchased via an online marketplace.

One thing’s for sure though: without the full force of the toy industry behind the campaign, change won’t arrive as fast as it should. Toy World is therefore asking its readers to get involved today – and ensure kids’ safety is toyed with no longer.