The safety standard covers the sale, exchange, lease, hire and hire purchase of toys, as well as ‘giveaways’, such as toys given away as prizes at side-show stalls, toys which are gifts with purchase of other goods and toys in breakfast cereal packets.  Private sales of second-hand toys are not covered.

The safety standard states toys should not:

• be of a size that creates a hazard if swallowed or inhaled;
• have small parts designed to be removed from the toy that create a hazard if swallowed or inhaled;
• have pieces that can break off in normal use or during reasonably foreseeable abuse and that create a hazard if swallowed or inhaled.

 This is because children under 36 months do not generally have a cough reflex to choking hazards. 

The safety standard refers to a cylinder for measuring whether toys or toy parts are too small.  If a toy, or a part of a toy, can fit completely into the cylinder, then it is too small and does not meet the standard.  Generally, anything smaller than a 35mm film canister or ping pong ball will not meet the standard. 

Businesses cannot label out of the safety standard.  For example a baby’s rattle labelled as ‘not suitable for children under three years’ would still be covered by the safety standard, and would breach the Fair Trading Act if it did not comply.

Examples
A toy manufacturer was prosecuted for supplying toy wooden puzzles for children under three years which had pieces that were an ingestion or inhalation hazard.  About 2,500 toys were supplied, and although the manufacturer undertook a product recall resulting in the return of about 1,000 puzzles, it was convicted and fined.

A supermarket sold a baby rattle that did not meet the toy safety standard.  The company said it relied on its supplier to ensure the toys met the safety standard and said this was common practice in the industry.  This was rejected by the court.  The company was convicted and fined