Toys | The tests again revealed toys that cause a choking hazard

Safety- and the Chemicals Agency warns of the danger of suffocation caused by some toys.

Tukes tested more than 20 favorite Christmas toys in the Customs Laboratory. Four toys were found to have a deficiency that causes a choking hazard. These included, for example, some soft toys.

The Huggy Wuggy soft toy, the RC soft toy, a teddy bear soft toy and the dancing cactus toy proved to be dangerous, with small parts, such as eyes, coming off. Lead was found in one drone intended as a toy. In its announcement, the agency urges to remove these toys from the use of children and has obliged importers to remove dangerous toys and drones from the market.

“Tukes chose the toys to be tested from the market in a very versatile way. There were both hit products and traditional toys, such as soft toys, dolls, a toy gun, wooden toys, sound toys, battery-operated toys, modeling wax and a slime set,” says the chief inspector Anja Merenkivi About Tukes.

Most of the deficiencies were in missing labels or instructions for use. In this case, for example, the toy’s age markings could be inconsistent or warnings or instructions for use in Finnish or Swedish could be missing.

“You can’t always see the quality of a toy on the surface, problems can only be found in the tests”, Customs Chief Inspector of the Customs Laboratory Mikko Kontiainen reminds in the announcement.

Become more common intelligent features in toys also require consumers to be attentive, for example in terms of information security. Therefore, when purchasing toys, it would be good to think about what kind of intelligence is desired and needed from the product.

“However, the buyer of smart products does not need to know everything, because the seller is also responsible for knowing the smart features of the products and telling about them,” says the special expert Fairy tale Widen From the Competition and Consumer Agency.

Recently published by the Consumer Ombudsman in a blog post we remind you that smart toys collect a lot of data from their users. Their data security level may be weak and vulnerable to exploitation. Therefore, it is worth considering that even a simple smart toy can collect personal information and may have the ability to connect to the network or other devices.

The article also urges you to investigate whether the toy contains a microphone, camera, touch sensor or whether it has the ability to establish a GPS connection. At the time of purchase, it is good to also consider whether separate devices or applications are needed and how the information collected about the user of the toy is stored.

“Information security is an essential feature of the product, which can be difficult for the buyer of the product to assess. The information security level of the products is variable, and the ability of the manufacturer is often reflected in the implementation of information security”, says the leading expert of Traficom’s cyber security center Juhani Eronen.

I supported according to almost 80 percent of Finns think that the authorities pre-check the toys and children’s accessories on the market. This is not the case.

Manufacturers, importers and sellers are responsible for product safety. The authorities examined a very small part of the toys.

“Customs grabs random lots from the border and warehouses for their investigations, and Tukes monitors the toys that are already on sale. Both choose products based on risk, and we look at toys where we suspect safety deficiencies,” Tukesin Merenkivi says in the announcement.