NEWS

EU Published New Toy Guidance 11: Toys intended for children under 36 months of age or of 36 months and over

On 2 February 2023, EU Commission published new Toy Guidance 11: Toys intended for children under 36 months of age or of 36 months and over. This Guidance document is intended to provide guidelines to help Member States and stakeholders on the classification of toys intended for children under 36 months of age or of 36 months and over.

This first version in 2009 focused on three categories of toys: jigsaw puzzles, dolls, and soft and stuffed toys. The new version of this Guidance document No 11 includes a wider range of toy categories, there are fifteen categories, including Puzzles; Dolls; Soft and stuffed or partially stuffed toys; Fidget toys; Modelling clay/dough, slime, soap bubbles; Movable/wheeled toys; Play scenes, constructed models and construction toys; Game sets and board games; Toys intended to be entered; Toys intended to bear the mass of a child; Toy sports equipment and balls; Hobby horse / stick horse; Push-pull toys and pull-along toys; Audio/Visual Equipment; Toy figures and other toys.

In fact, the borderline between toys intended for children under and above 36 months of age is not always clear and easy to determine. In order to clearly identify the borderline some key factors were identified by the EU Expert Group on Toy Safety. The play value of a toy intended for children under 36 months could be determined by the following key factors:
(1) the psychology of children of under 3 years, particularly their need to “cuddle”;
(2) their attraction to objects “which are like them”: baby, small child, baby animal, etc.;
(3) their preference to imitate adults and their activities;
(4) their mental development, particularly their lack of capacity for abstraction, low level of knowledge, limited patience, etc.;
(5) their less developed physical abilities in terms of ease of movement, manual dexterity, etc. (the toy may be small and light for the child to handle it easily).

If you have any questions about your products, please do not hesitate to contact us. LEO-MTS can offer Toy safety testing, labelling review service.

For further details, please refer to the below link:
https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/toys/toy-safety/guidance_en