Draft Safety Standards for Children’s Products

Australia issued two proposals for standards on infant sleep products that shall repeal the current standards for infant cots.  

The proposed legislation extends the scope to any infant sleep products and brings ample testing and labelling requirements.

Regulations on children’s sleeping products in Australia have, so far, been only relating to infant cots. This omits any products that can nonetheless be used for sleeping by infants. To address this apparent gap, the Australian authorities have issued proposals for two separate standards. These are divided into a safety standard and an information standard.

The Consumer Goods (Infant Sleep Products) Safety Standard shall cover any infant sleep products, including inclined non-sleep products that are not designed or intended for sleeping, that however, may be used that way. This standard requires specific testing and design to address specific risks of the structure of the product, as well as warning labels.

The Consumer Goods (Infant Products) Information Standard complements the Safety Standard and gives detailed rules on markings and the display of safety information and warnings on the products, packaging and at the point of sale.

The implementation of the requirements of both standards shall commence 18 months after the coming into force of the standards. The draft for the Safety Standard can be viewed HERE and for the Information Standard HERE.