As readers know, much of the recent policy focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (as well as Congress) has been on the safety of products used by children. But what is a “children’s product”?  The CPSC has announced it is issuing a proposed interpretive rule aimed at providing further guidance as to what constitutes a “children’s product” to mitigate potential confusion among manufacturers about how to comply with the relevant new safety requirements, such as under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.  The proposal would provide additional guidance on the factors that must be considered when evaluating what is a children’s product. Written comments and submissions in response to this notice must be received by June 21, 2010.

Section 3(a)(2) of the CPSA (as amended by the CPSIA) defines a “children’s product” as a consumer product designed or intended primarily for children 12 years of age or younger. A determination of whether a product is a “children’s product” will be based on consideration of  four specified statutory factors, but because each of those four factors incorporates the concept of  “use” by the child in some manner, under the proposed rule the Agency would further interpret the term “for use” by children 12 years or younger to generally mean that children will physically interact with such products based on the reasonably foreseeable use and misuse of such product.

First factor: a manufacturer’s statements about the product’s intended use, including a label on such product; a manufacturer’s statement that the product is not intended for children does not preclude a product from being regulated as a children’s product if the primary appeal of the product is to children 12 years of age or younger. Similarly, a label indicating that a product is for ages 10 and up does not necessarily make it a children’s product if it is a general use product. Such a
label may recommend 10 years old as the earliest age for a prospective user, not necessarily the age for which the product is primarily intended.

Second factor: if the product is represented in its packaging, display, promotion, or advertising as appropriate for use by children 12 years of age or younger. These representations can be express
(such as product advertising declaring that the product is for use by children 12 years of age or younger) or implied (such as product advertising showing the product being used by young children). These representations may be found in packaging, text, illustrations and/or photographs depicting consumers using the product, instructions, assembly manuals, or advertising media used to market the product. The prominence, conspicuousness, and or other emphasis given to each portrayal of a product’s uses or intended users on packaging or in advertising media can be weighted differently according to which images or messages are the strongest and most obvious to the consumer at the point of purchase. For example, labeling in large, high contrast letters on the front of a package can send a stronger message than block letters in a small box on the package’s side panel. Besides labeling and illustrations, a product’s physical location in a retail outlet or visual associations in the pages of an on-line distributor’s Web site could imply its suitability for a certain age group. The close association of a product in a store or on a Web site with other products that are clearly intended for children 12 years of age or younger could affect consumer perceptions of the intended age group for that product.

Third factor: whether a consumer product is designed or intended primarily for a child 12 years of age or younger is whether the product is commonly recognized by consumers as being intended for use by a child 12 years of age or younger. For example, traditional board and table games like chess, checkers, backgammon, playing cards, or Chinese checkers are commonly recognized as equally attractive to children and adults because the level of difficulty increases or decreases depending on the player’s skill. Versions of these games, and similar games commonly considered by consumers to appeal to a general audience, are not considered children’s products. However, if a manufacturer adds marketing portrayals or other features to the game or its packaging that make it more attractive to or suitable for children than a general use product would normally be, then the game could be  considered a children’s product. Examples include small sizes that would not be comfortable for the average adult; exaggerated features (large buttons, bright indicators) that simplify the product’s use by kids; safety features that are not found on similar products intended for adults; colors commonly associated with childhood (pinks, blues,
bright primary colors); features that do not enhance the product’s utility, (such as cartoons), but contribute to its attractiveness to children 12 years of age or younger.

Fourth factor: the Age Determination Guidelines (“Guidelines”) issued by the CPSC staff in 2002, which focus on an age determination for a given product’s intended user group,  The Guidelines provide information about the primary goals of play that are seen for different ages throughout childhood. For example, toddlers consistently want to mouth objects because mouthing is a primary strategy for exploration of any object at that age. Early  childhood entails lots of exploration and discovery. High levels of detail in their toys are not necessary, and toddlers like bright
colors. However, during middle childhood, children become very interested in role-playing, and they desire increasingly more realistic props during their playtime, and more realistic colors become
important. After a certain age, children do not consider the simplistic, brightly colored toys intended for toddlers to be intended for them and may find them very unappealing or even insulting. Nine to
12 year old children are interested in developing new motor skills and exercising their increasingly complex problem solving abilities. The factors that make various objects appealing to children of different ages are discussed at length in the Guidelines.

The proposed rules also offer examples in a number of product lines.