On January 27, 2020, the US Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published an updated version of its age
determination guidelines to help businesses age grade children’s consumer
products.
Determining the age appropriateness of a children’s
product requires an understanding of each age groups:
- Skills
- Play behavior
- Interests
These must then be considered in relation
to the characteristics of the toy product.
Age determination is closely related to
safety. For manufacturers and designers, the difficulty is that children go
through several developmental stages. At each stage, their skills and abilities
will evolve.
The 2020 version of the guidelines
replaces the 2002 iteration. It takes account of a variety of changes,
including purchasing behavior, up to date research into children’s play, and the
arrival of new types of toy and children’s product.
The changes are based on seven topics:
- Exploratory and practice play
- Building play
- Pretend & role play
- Game & activity play
- Sports, recreational, & outdoor play
- Media play
- Educational & academic play
In addition,
a new topic has also been introduced – technology play – that reflects the growing importance of smart electronic toys.
The new guidelines
began to be used by CPSC on June 1, 2020.
Stakeholders
should be aware these guidelines are used to develop the global toy guidelines ISO/TR
8124-8. ISO is now amending these guidelines to bring them into line with the
new CPSC guidelines.
SGS Toy & Juvenile Product Services
SGS offers a wide range of services to ensure that products comply with
relevant standards for childcare articles and children’s equipment. They
provide consulting, training, product development, testing, audit and
inspection services to ensure that products comply with strict regulations
worldwide, demonstrating the safety and quality of juvenile products being
brought to the market. Learn more about SGS’s Toy & Juvenile Product Services.
SGS SafeGuardS keep you up to date with
the latest news and developments in the consumer goods industry. Read the full US CPSC Published New Age Determination Guidelines on
January 27, 2020 SafeGuardS.
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For further information contact:
Sanda Stefanovic
Toys Expert
Tel: +31882144617
Piyush Shah
Toys Expert
Tel: +1 (973) 461-7953
Email: crs.media@sgs.com
Website: www.sgs.com/hardlines
LinkedIn: sgs-consumer-goods-&-retail
About SGS
SGS is the world’s leading inspection,
verification, testing and certification company. SGS is recognized as the
global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 94,000 employees,
SGS operates a network of over 2,600 offices and laboratories around the world.