Watch out if you’re buying cheap toys online for the grandkids this Christmas – the bargain may end up costing you more than you think.
Consumer group CHOICE tested a random assortment 15 kids’ toys and novelty items purchased from online retailer Temu and found all of them failed at least one regulation under Australian button battery safety standards.
The items included a light-up tutu skirt, an electronic fidget spinner, a projector watch, mini electronic games and a musical keyboard. CHOICE purchased the 15 items anonymously from Temu in May this year.
“Our results are a worrying reminder of the potential for these kinds of products to slip through the net, putting children in Australia at risk of serious injury or even death,” says CHOICE CEO, Ashley de Silva.
“Most of them had unsafe, insecure battery compartments, and all of them failed at least one requirement of mandatory button battery safety standards.”
Mr de Silva says the popular online retailer has stopped selling most of the problem items, but not all of them. He wants to see them do more.
“Temu has now removed all the offending products from their website, but 12 of the items were still available for sale when we alerted Temu to the issues,” says Mr de Silva.
“It shouldn’t take a CHOICE investigation to ensure unsafe products are removed from their website.”
One of the worst offenders was the LED light-up tutu skirt, which had a non-childproof lithium battery compartment that was possible to open with a fingernail.
Wait, what is Temu?
If you haven’t heard of it, Temu is a wildly popular online retailer based in China, offering heavily discounted consumer goods of all kinds, usually direct from the Chinese factories producing them.
Since it first launched to international customers in 2022, Temu has quickly risen to be one of the major players in the online retail space, competing with giants like Amazon and Alibaba.
Customers love the insanely low prices, but Temu is not exactly loved by governments and privacy advocates around the world. Temu has been accused of everything from selling customer data to spying for the Chinese government.
Temu also has something of a reputation for selling poorly made goods that don’t meet quality and safety standards in most countries – as CHOICE’s button battery investigation discovered.
“We’re disappointed to see a big company like Temu flouting mandatory button battery safety standards. We urge Temu to join other online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon and sign up to the voluntary Product Safety pledge, which provides additional protections to consumers,” says de Silva.
“CHOICE continues to call on the government to introduce a general safety provision, which would make it illegal for businesses to sell unsafe products in the first place,” says de Silva.
Why are button batteries so dangerous for kids?
Button batteries are bright, shiny objects shaped like lollies and are make a very attractive proposition to young children. But they are lithium batteries and hold a considerable amount of power.
If swallowed, the battery will come into contact with saliva and other fluids and when a button battery gets wet, it becomes corrosive.
This can lead to painful – and very serious – internal burns. Around 20 children are taken to emergency departments for swallowing button batteries every week.
Check out this video from Queensland Health showing what happens when a button battery is inserted in a chicken breast to get an idea of the damage they can do.
If you suspect a child has swallowed a button battery, you can contact the 24/7 Poison Information Centre on 13 11 26 and call 000 immediately if the child is having any difficulty breathing.
Do you ever buy things from Temu? Do you expect items you buy from there to conform to Australian regulations? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: Aldi has Australia’s cheapest groceries, CHOICE finds
