Moves to improve toy safety to minimise carcinogenic and cybersecurity risk 

The European Parliament's lead on toy safety, Italian MEP Brando Benefei, has outlined proposals to ensure that toys sold on the EU market, including from third countries and online, are safe. 

Pressure is mounting for better safety regulation around toys in the EU, with the proliferation of online sales increasing the risk of defective or dangerous toys getting into the hands of children.

Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune was one of a range of lawmakers at EU level to say that some toy manufacturers and sellers are evading standards outside of the EU when it comes to safety and complying with the bloc's legislation.

The European Parliament's lead on toy safety, Italian MEP Brando Benefei, outlined proposals to ensure that toys sold on the EU market, including from third countries and online, are safe. 

We think, as Parliament, that to ensure more safety for children when they are playing with their toys, that we ensure better protection from chemicals, strengthening also labelling on that, and also on the risks related to connected toys and to the risk of unsafe products. 

"We have different aspects that need to be strengthened because children are especially vulnerable consumers. So we cannot accept low levels of protection towards carcinogenic, mutagenic and also towards the risk for the data being misused," Mr Benefei said.

Current market surveillance is not working effectively and we see too many unsafe products especially online, he said.

The toy safety directive should be converted into a regulation, so it could be more coherent and clear for all the member states, he added.

Unlike EU directives which have to be embedded in each state's national laws over time, an EU regulation is binding from the day it is introduced. 

Toys are so advanced in 2021 that they are using data sharing, Mr Benefei said.

We need to be sure that the existing norms, like data protection, that already exists and also new norms that will be now under scrutiny by the Parliament, because often they are able to collect sensitive data and to be used also for any kind of objective if we don't put in clear safety rules.

Toys need to be insulated from cybersecurity risks, attacks, against the misuse of data, he said.

Ms Clune pointed to an assessment carried out by Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) in 2020 which found that out of 193 toys that they surveyed, 97.4% were being sold illegally in the EU, while 76.1% were identified as dangerous.

Key risks identified included sharp points, risks of choking, strangulation or burns, as well as flammability and unsafe chemicals, Ms Clune said.

"Often, such toys do not comply with even basic EU safety regulations and will go on sale on these platforms, be subsequently flagged as unsafe and taken down but then show up the next day on the site, from an apparently different seller all the while presenting the same risks," she said.

Consumers should be wary of products marketed cheaper than expected, she warned.