International Toy Safety

International Toy Safety

The major international toy safety standards are ISO 8124, EN71 and ASTM F963.

The EN71 series of Standards are the standards for toy safety in Europe and are, for the most part, harmonised to the European Toy Safety Directive, i.e. compliance with the Standards gives presumption of conformity to the Directive and allows the mandatory CE compliance mark to be added to the packaging.

ASTM F963 is the USA Toy Safety Standard and compliance with it is mandatory in order to meet the requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).

The ISO 8124 series of Standards are developed by a consensus process amongst experts from many different nations, including Australia, USA, UK and China. In total, there are 25 participating nations and another 30 nations with observer status. The Standards are adopted or referenced in the national Standards of approximately 20 nations including Australia and China.

A primary purpose of the ISO group is to act as a mechanism for the alignment of these major Standards. In general, the regulations affecting products in different markets are different and compliance in one market will not guarantee compliance in another. However, if the regulations are based on Standards and we can keep the Standards as much the same as possible, then the process of global compliance can be simplified as much as possible and toys can be made more accessible and at better prices.