Australia: Mandatory safety standard for children’s toys containing magnets 

 

Australia is introducing updates to its mandatory safety standard for children’s toys containing magnets. 

The mandatory standard for toys containing magnets was introduced in 2010 to reduce the risk of serious injury or death from children ingesting small high- powered magnets or magnetic components supplied with children’s toys. 

The mandatory standard covers requirements for design, construction, testing and information labelling. It was last updated in 2020 and references now outdated versions of the voluntary Australian, international, European and US standards. 

The ACCC is conducting a limited review of the mandatory standard for toys containing magnets. The purpose of this limited review is to seek stakeholder views about: 

• referencing updated voluntary Australian and overseas standards that provide an equivalent or better level of safety 

• whether adding dynamic references is appropriate – so updates to referenced voluntary standards flow through to the mandatory standard. 

The mandatory standard currently references the following 4 voluntary standards: 

• Australian and New Zealand standard: AS/NZS ISO 8124.1:2019 Safety of toys Part 1: Safety aspects related to mechanical and physical properties (direct adoption of the voluntary international standard) 

• clause 4.1 and 4.31 (with modifications) 

• International standard: ISO 8124-1:2018 Safety of toys – Part 1: Safety aspects related to mechanical and physical properties 

• clause 4.1 and 4.31 (with modifications) 

• European standard: EN 71-1:2014+A1:2018 Safety of toys – Part 1: Mechanical and physical properties 

• clause 4.23 

• US standard: ASTM F963-17 Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety 

• clause 4.38 

• clause 8.5 and 8.9 (with modifications) 

The limited review seeks views about allowing suppliers to comply with the most recent versions of the following voluntary standards: 

• Australian and New Zealand standard: AS/NZS ISO 8124.1:2023 Safety of toys Part 1: Safety aspects related to mechanical and physical properties 

• International standard: ISO 8124-1:2022/Amd 1:2025 Safety of toys – Part 1: Safety aspects related to mechanical and physical properties 

• European standard: EN 71-1:2026 Safety of toys – Part 1: Mechanical and physical properties 

• US standard: ASTM F963-23 Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety. 

Each of these updated voluntary standards have identical requirements for magnets and magnetic components in toys to their individual predecessors. We are seeking stakeholder views on whether to continue to reference the relevant clauses as those currently referenced in the mandatory standard, from each of these updated voluntary standards. 

Referencing updated voluntary international standards, alongside the updated voluntary Australian standard, reduces the regulatory burden on suppliers by reducing administrative, testing and compliance costs where a product already conforms to the requirements of the specified voluntary standard. 

Relevant documents and links: 

Current mandatory safety standard – Consumer Goods (Toys Containing Magnets) Safety Standard 2020 

ACCC Product Safety page – Toys containing magnets mandatory standard 

Consultation for the limited review of toys containing magnets – Limited review of the toys containing magnets mandatory safety standard 

The International and Australian/New Zealand standards are available for purchase from Standards Australia, Intertek Inform ou Accuris 

To find out more about product compliance in Australia, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.