Thursday, June 3, 2010
Packaging for children
The US Consumer Product Safety Commmission (CPSC) has issued new draft rulings for children's products. The rules pertain among other things to games and packages containing other electronic content. The big question has been whether packaging and the media (CD or DVD's) itself and other game related accessories must conform to the regulations pertaining to children's products, or whether the products are so-called general use (or - in layman's terms - exempt.) The new rulings clarifies that the commission will be evaluating each product based on its target audience, contents and appearance.
If the target audience is very small children, the assumption is that adults will solely be handling the packaging and media. If the target audience is adults or children older than 12 years, the packaging and media should be considered "general use" items. If the target audience is mostly less than 12 years of age, then the packaging, media, game consoles, keyboard and other accessories must meet the CPSC standards for heavy metals pertaining to children's products.
If you are "playing in this space" (pun intended), get ready to revisit your production to meet the new requirements. See details at: http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr10/childproduct.pdf