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16.04.2025

Valentin Tataritsky: "Goods for children and teenagers must be the safest ones"

Valentin Tataritsky, Minister in charge of Technical Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission, proposed to improve the safety of products for children and teenagers at the Congress of Children's Goods Industry in Moscow. He is convinced that such goods must be the safest on the market of the Eurasian Economic Union countries.

At the Congress, representatives of business and expert community, government agencies and international organizations exchanged opinions on this topic and shared their work experience. Valentin Tataritsky told how the Commission jointly with the Member States establishes and improves the relevant regulatory framework within the EAEU. In the Union documents, he said, the use of modern technologies by manufacturers in making toys, clothing, footwear and other children's and teenage goods should be reflected more widely. At the same time, safety must be paramount.

Every child dreams of an interesting, beautiful toy. But, so that such gifts do not disappoint children and parents, let alone cause harm to health, when buying a product, a number of characteristics should be taken into account. In particular, it is the material, shape, odor, which must comply with the established safety requirements and meet certain age criteria. Even the color matters: it should be as close to natural as possible, so it does not disrupt the child's idea of the real world and is not frightening. All necessary requirements are contained in the technical regulation of the Union "On Safety of Toys".

Also, the following EAEU technical regulations are in force: "On Safety of Products Intended for Children and Teenagers", "On Safety of Amusement Rides", "On Safety of Equipment for Children's Playgrounds", etc., the requirements of which are fundamental.   

The EEC Minister emphasized the need for timely and science-based adjustment of the relevant technical regulations of the Union in accordance with "risks to children's mental health and cognitive development."

"The requirements of technical regulations are of a technical nature, which gives us the possibility to assess (test or measure) them in a fairly obvious way," noted the EEC Minister. "At the same time, children's products are of great importance for the intellectual, moral and aesthetic development of children. But there are no requirements in the regulations yet that can address that."

Valentin Tataritsky reported on the study of various practices in terms of establishing requirements for children's products, including digital toys and toys with artificial intelligence, excluding negative impact on the children's mind. He dwelt in detail on the example of the European Union "tightening the regulations for children's products" and called on all those interested to evaluate this experience more closely with a view to its possible use in the EAEU.

"The Commission is interested in similar activities taking place in our Union. All the more so because the EAEU law has the capacity for timely and prompt adjustment of technical requirements. The new edition of the Procedure for developing technical regulations of the Union and amending them, adopted this year, will ensure accelerated adjustment of these documents and the Unified Sanitary and Epidemiological Requirements based on the R&D results," summarized Valentin Tataritsky.