THE NEED FOR CHILDREN’S TOY SAFETY POLICY IN ASEAN

Abstract

Children‘s toy, like other consumer products must be safe to be used by children. There is a growing concern on the safety of children‘s toys around the world, particularly within Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), European Union (EU) and United States (US). The issue of unsafe toys is very crucial in ASEAN due to the present of unsafe toys in ASEAN Member States (AMS), such as Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. There is no data on unsafe toys in other AMS. However, this does not mean that those countries are free from unsafe toys. In addition, it is worth to note that there is an absence of comprehensive children‘s toy safety legislations within AMS, except for Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Therefore the objective of this paper is to propose Children‘s Toy Safety Policy in ASEAN in order to enhance the safety children‘s toy. Adopting a qualitative approach, this paper will highlight the need for ASEAN to have Children‘s Toy Safety Policy in ASEAN. This paper proposes the components of the Children‘s Toy Safety Policy in