Where to find toy safety data when buying online

BY LARRY MAGID
November 26, 2000

The Thanksgiving dishes have been cleared from the table and the holiday shopping season is officially under way. If you're like me, you'll be doing some of your shopping online, including ordering toys for the children on your list.

I would have loved to shop at eToys.com, toysrus.com, KBToys.com and other online toy stores when my kids were little. Buying toys online means not having to wait in long lines at the toy store or, worse, trying to herd your children toward the door as they bug you to buy them this and that.

But if you decide to do your toy shopping online instead of at the store, be aware that you won't be able to physically inspect the toys and the packaging nor will you have access to the consumer product safety warning labels that appear on in-store toy packaging.

U.S. Public Interest Research Group (www.uspirg.org) just released "Trouble in Toyland: The 2000 PIRG Survey of Dangerous Toys," which warns parents to be vigilant this holiday season to protect their children from dangerous or age-inappropriate toys. The group found that "toy manufacturers make toys that may pose choke hazards" despite safety regulations adopted by the 1994 Child Safety Protection Act.

The report found that in 1999 nearly 70,000 children under age 5 were treated in hospital emergency rooms as a result of toy-related injuries and that 19 children under age 11 died as a result of playing with toys. There have been 190 toy-related deaths since 1990, according to the report -- 62 percent of which were caused by choking.

The Toy Manufacturers of America, the industry's trade group, rejected PIRG's finding, saying many of the toys sold in the United States are safe. "Toy safety is a major priority," the group said.

Links to the PIRG report, all sites mentioned in this column and other related sites can be found at www.larrysworld.com/toysafety.htm

Toys that are sold in stores are required to have prominent labels that warn parents of choking and other hazards, but Web sites are not required to display those warning labels, according to Rachel Weintraub, author of the PIRG report.

Further, according to Weintraub, none of the major online toy retailers routinely display such warnings on their sites, so parents are on their own when it comes to knowing whether a toy is appropriate for a given age group.

Representatives of major online toy retailers could not be reached for comment prior to this column's publication deadline. But I did some trolling of my own to see what's out there.

Toys R Us (www.toysrus.com) whose online sales are handled through Amazon.com, displays its own age recommendations as well as manufacturers' age recommendations, but does not display the safety warning information from the packages themselves.

If you click on the "more age info" link in a toy's description, you're taken to "Amazon.com's Age Ranges" page that says that "age range is based on information supplied by a toy's manufacturer and some manufacturers" display age ranges based on safety information and restrictions alone. Amazon assures customers that "you can be sure that when we suggest an age range, that toy meets the U.S. safety standards for those ages."

The KBToys Web site (www.kbtoys.com) lists age ranges (such as "8+ years for the `Holiday Celebration Barbie Doll 2000' ") but does not include safety information. It may be there somewhere but, after five minutes of searching, I wasn't able to find any safety information on the KBToys Web site other than a discussion of why it's safe to use a credit card on its site.

I had to search for it, but I did find safety information at eToys.com. I didn't find any safety labeling for specific toys, but there is a section in the baby area (www.babycenter.com) of the site that talks about toy safety. There are some good suggestions, including advising parents to look for the "recommended age sticker" (which you can't necessarily find online) as well as a warning that "toy parts should be bigger than the child's mouth up to age 3 to avoid the chance of choking."

There is also a link to the Web site of the Consumer Products Safety Commission (www.cpsc.gov), which as eToys points out, "has designed a Small Objects Tester you can use to determine if a toy could potentially cause choking." If a toy or part of a toy can fit inside the test cylinder, then it's not safe. BabyCenter provides a link to a page on its site where you can purchase the $1.99 tester but when I clicked on that link, I discovered that it has been "discontinued."

So what's a parent to do? The first thing you should do is to sensitize yourself about the issue of safe toys. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's Web site has a toy safety publication that you can find in the left column of the agency's home page. Another set of tips can be found at the Web site of the Toy Manufacturers of America (www.toy-tma.org). Click on the "4 Toy Safety" link at the bottom of the page.

Also, the major online toy sites have areas where customers post comments. Check these for information about safety or general play value and feel free to make your own comments about toys that you're familiar with.

You should also visit ToySafety's Web site (www.toysafety.net) and check out its list of "34 potentially hazardous toys," which includes toys from some well-known manufacturers.

However, just because a toy is listed on this site doesn't necessarily mean that it's dangerous for all children -- just children under certain age groups.

While you're at ToySafety.net, click on "Consumer Tips" for general advice, which emphasizes the dangers of toys with small parts as well as balloons and other toys that children can choke on.

Always check out the Web page's return policy to make sure you aren't stuck with whatever toy you do buy. Policies vary and, last year, some consumers got some unhappy surprises when they tried to return products they ordered online.

Finally, I recommend that you look at toys in stores before buying them online. Aside from being able to see safety labels, you'll also get a better feeling for what the toy looks like and whether it is suitable for your child. Of course, that defeats the purpose of being able to buy online, but it could help you avoid buying a toy that -- even if it's not dangerous -- may not be all that the advertising makes it out to be.