SECTOR : KID Launches Design Safety Toolkit Online Course for Children’s Product Developers

Posted 19/07/22

Kids In Danger (KID) launched a new online course geared towards entrepreneurs and
businesses that create children’s products – the KID Design Safety Toolkit. The course, which is free of charge, provides children’s product developers with the information and tools they need to design, develop, and market products more safely, and is a much-needed resource in the children’s products market.

The online course is a result of several years of work from a cross-functional team of experts in children’s products across all facets of development, from product design to research, safety, testing, legal, marketing and more.

“The KID Design Safety Toolkit gives product designers and makers the valuable knowledge KID has gained over 20 years of working to make children’s products safer, along with contributions from other product safety experts,” stated Nancy Cowles, Executive Director of KID. “We believe this focus on real world use will help save lives and prevent injuries.”

While no one sets out to design a product that puts our most vulnerable consumers—infants and children—at risk, each year tens of thousands of kids are injured and hundreds die in incidents associated with infant and children’s products. Many entrepreneurs and organizations have great ideas or a clear vision of the need from their own experiences but aren’t skilled in product safety or child development. On top of that, they may not have all the resources needed to ensure product safety once their products are in the home and in real-world use.

“Helping new entrepreneurs and selling partners gain the knowledge and knowhow they need to develop and sell safe products benefits all consumers,” said Mark Fellin, Amazon’s Head of Product Trust & Regulatory Compliance. “We are thrilled to work with Kids In Danger to launch this educational Toolkit that can be accessed remotely by anyone looking to enhance the safety of their products.”

The Toolkit is comprised of expert panel discussions, educational videos and podcasts, and more, and includes information regarding:

• • Understanding consumer behaviour—and designing to ensure safety in real-world use
  • What can happen if you do not keep the end user in mind
  • Designing and manufacturing to encourage intuitive and safe use
  • The role of market research—and how to incorporate that at any budget level
  • Marketing with an eye toward safety
  • Age grading and developmental considerations

“The KID Design Safety Toolkit takes our mission of protecting children one step further by preventing product safety issues at the beginning of concept design, and helps small businesses and entrepreneurs new to developing children’s products understand the impact of real world situations on their product’s safety,” said Shehnaz Safiuddin, KID Design Safety Task Group Chairperson.

This is the first phase of the Toolkit. The second phase will provide a deeper dive into specific safety considerations for key infant and children’s product categories including sleep, at home, out and about, and play.

"Industry professionals and researchers continue to learn ways to mitigate hazards in children's and infants' products,” said Erin Mannen, PhD, Assistant Professor and the Director of the Boise Applied Biomechanics of Infants Laboratory at Boise State University. “This Toolkit offers a comprehensive course from a multidisciplinary team of professionals all interested in improving product safety, and I'm honored to be part of it."

Jen Loesch, CEO of BreathableBaby, shared similar sentiments and said, “Bringing together KID’s network of experts, real-world use cases, and knowledge across a broad range of product categories into an accessible knowledge platform is a pivotal moment in advancing children’s product safety. We applaud KID’s leadership and are honored to provide our support in making the Toolkit available to entrepreneurs and brands seeking to enhance product safety.”

“Regulatory compliance does not necessarily mean that a product is safe,” said Susan DeRagon, Senior Business Development Manager at QIMA and industry veteran. “QIMA has done a lot of training sessions to help companies understand and address potential hazards, and we are honored to be part of the KID Toolkit that provides everyone with the resources needed to help ensure that their children’s products are safe.”

Learn more and register for the KID Design Safety Toolkit here. Major funding for the Toolkit was provided by Amazon. Additional funding was provided by BreathableBaby, Etsy, and QIMA. Read our full contributors list here, including the advisory committee and video panellists.

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You can register for the course and get the KID Design Safety Toolkit here: KID Design Safety Toolkit (kidsafetytoolkit.org)

 

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This media release was originally distributed in July 2022, by www.kidsindanger.org

Kids In Danger (KID) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting children by fighting for product safety. KID’s mission is to save lives by enhancing transparency and accountability through safer product development, better education, and stronger advocacy for children.

 

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