Today, the European Parliament’s committee on the internal market and consumer protection voted the EU Toy Safety Regulation.

The future regulation will lay down the safety requirements that toys placed on the EU market must meet, whether they are manufactured in or outside the EU. Among the main priorities, this legislation includes a ban on the use of chemical substances that have proven be toxic for children.

Thanks to the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, the adopted regulation aims to protect not only children under 14, but also the adults that play with them. It will also put children’s mental health and cognitive development related to the use of digitally connected toys at the core of the legislation, and limit maximum noise levels of toys to avoid damaging children’s hearing.

Brando Benifei, S&D MEP and shadow rapporteur on the Toy Safety Regulation, said:

“Toys greatly contribute to children’s development, but we cannot accept that toys placed on the EU market put them at risk.

“The safety of children is an absolute priority for our group. The Socialists and Democrats successfully contributed to ensure that the precautionary principle - taking preventative action to avoid potentially severe damage to human health - is at the core of this key legislation.

“Digitalisation has definitely changed our daily lives and has a great impact on our children’s development. This is why we pushed to ensure that manufacturers of digitally connected toys (e.g. watches, tablets or educational robots) take into account the risk to children’s mental health and cognitive development. Manufacturers must ensure that the products they are putting on the market not only meet the highest standards of safety, but also those of security and privacy.

“Once the future regulation enters into force, those toys already in conformity with the current directive adopted in 2009 will have a transition period to be removed from the European single market. We deplore that despite the S&D Group’s fight to limit this transition period to 30 months, the final text sets 50 months for those toys to be removed from the EU single market following right wing pressure.”