Toy Safety Information - A guide
What is a toy?
A toy is any product or material designed or clearly intended for use in play by children of less than 14 years of age but excludes those products that are set out in Schedule 3 of the Toys (Safety) Regulations 1989.
What is not a toy is a legal minefield, but does include among other things, Christmas decorations and crackers, detailed scale models for adult collectors, folk dolls, toy steam engines, bicycles designed for sport and for travel on the public highway (cycles with a maximum saddle height of 435mm are considered toys), video toys connected to a video screen and fashion jewellery for children.
Q. How do you know you stock safe toys?
Toys are usually tested by an approved laboratory and the manufacturers can then certify that their products are safe.
Besides obtaining assurances (preferably in writing) from suppliers and checking new stock, retailers who are members of the TRA have an additional assurance through the TRA's "approved suppliers lists" which contain the names and addresses of all members of the BTHA (British Toy & Hobby Association) and the BTIA (British Toy Importers Association) who make an annual declaration to their respective associations that all their products are supplied in accordance with a strict code of practice. These lists are updated annually in the BTHA Handbook which is circulated to TRA members.
Contents
Introduction - How to use this guide
The CE Mark, the Lion Mark and the Approved Lion Mark
Toy Safety Regulations and Standards
What is a toy?
Advising customers on toys for children under 3 years (Age labelling and age warnings, 'Under supervision', Choke Hazard Test
Electrical and battery powered toys, Chemical toys and age warnings for older children, Accoustics and toys
Appendices A & B : About the TRA & TRA Code of Practice
Appendices C & D : BTHA Code of Practice and About the BTHA
Appendix E : Other sources of information
Toy Safety Problem? Contact Details