A range of children’s toys from budget online retailer Temu have failed major product safety tests, an investigation by Choice has found.
The consumer advocacy group tested 15 products made for kids from the US-founded shopping platform, which ships from China, and said all of them didn’t pass button battery safety standards.
Among the Temu products randomly tested in May 2024 were a child’s tutu, an animal watch and a musical keyboard.
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Choice claimed every product on the list failed at least one mandatory requirement of Australian button battery regulations.
In Australia, there are four mandatory safety and information standards for button and coin batteries and the products that contain them.
Swallowing or inserting a button battery can be life-threatening or even cause death and is especially dangerous for children.
Every day in Australia there is at least one child who needs to go to hospital because of button battery ingestion, according to the Poisons Information Hotline.
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Choice said a $12.79 tutu skirt was among the worst offenders on the product list.
The tutu had a lithium battery compartment which was deemed not child-proof and “very easy to open with just a fingernail”.
Other problematic items Choice tested included an electronic pet game, a cartoon projector, a finger-spinning top and a space figurine.
The finger-spinning top was easily separated to expose the batteries inside, Choice said.
Meanwhile, the electronic pet game and cartoon projector had screws that could be lost, meaning the battery compartment was not childproof.
The space figurine, Choice found, had “poorly secured button batteries” in the interior of the product.
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“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,” Choice chief executive Ashley de Silva said.
“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.
“It shouldn’t take a Choice investigation to ensure unsafe products are removed from their website.”
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Choice has urged Temu to join the likes of eBay and Amazon to sign up for the voluntary Product Safety pledge, which aims to protect Australian customers from safety risks when shopping online.
“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,” de Silva added.
9news.com.au has contacted Temu for comment.
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