A consumer’s guide to the British Standard for toy safety (BS EN 71 series)

Toys are valuable tools for children’s development. As well as keeping them entertained, toys help children find out about the world, learn new skills and make friends. But the importance of keeping children safe while they play can’t be overstated.

Whether your child is playing with a climbing frame, a chemistry set or a plastic car, you need assurance that the product won’t cause harm. Fortunately, consumers in the UK are well protected by legislation and the British Standard that underpins it.

BS EN 71 series – the basics

  • Since July 2011, all toys sold in the European Union must comply with the European Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC, enacted in the UK as the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011
  • The British Standard BS EN 71, which comes in many parts, explains how manufacturers should meet the requirements of the Directive, stating how toys should be manufactured and tested and the safety warnings they must carry
  • If toys don’t comply, they can be removed from sale and manufacturers face prosecution and possible imprisonment

BS EN 71 series – the details

Before toys reach the shelves, they must undergo rigorous testing to ensure they are safe for children to use. Safety testing a teddy bear, for example, might include tugging its eyes, to make sure a young child couldn’t easily pull them out and swallow them, and setting it alight, to check whether a child holding a teddy which caught fire, would have time to drop it before being burnt.

There are lots of different toys to test, from chemistry sets to swings and slides, and things to test for, such as:

  • Making sure toys cannot stab, trap, mangle or choke
  • Checking the fire safety of high-risk products such as fancy dress costumes, play houses and soft toys
  • Ensuring children aren’t at risk from elements such as lead, cadmium and mercury when sucking or chewing toys, with limits and test procedures for more than 80 potentially dangerous substances, such as solvents and preservatives
  • Regulating the ingredients in finger paints, and requiring that these taste bitter to deter a child from swallowing them

More parts are always being added to the standard to cover a range of safety aspects from new methods of analysing certain chemicals to new specifications for domestic trampolines, cosmetic kits, and board games involving smell and taste.A full list of all the existing standards and work which is going on is available through the BSI website.