Tag: Childrens

CCPC warns consumers to avoid dangerous car seat head straps

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is warning consumers against the use of head straps in children’s car seats.

The product safety warning comes after extensive online market surveillance by the CCPC. Through these searches, the CCPC conducted a sweep of 100 product listings and attempted to obtain the required safety documentation for each product. All 100 listings were removed as the safety of the products could not be demonstrated.

The products in question were being sold across five online marketplaces; Amazon, Cdiscount, Joom, Shein and Wish. They may be for sale on other platforms or websites.

The head restraint accessory, which is sometimes described as a car seat head strap, a neck protection belt, head support hugger or a nap aid/sleep holder belt, claims to prevent a child’s head from falling forwards or sideways if they fall asleep.

However, an investigation by the CCPC’s product safety team established that these products are dangerous and could cause serious injuries to a child’s spine or neck during a collision or suffocation if the strap slips over the child’s nose and mouth, or strangulation if the strap moves down to their neck.

These products have already been recalled in Malta, Germany and Australia. While the number of products sold in Ireland is unknown, the CCPC is issuing a safety warning about the car seat head straps due to the serious risk they pose.

Grainne Griffin, CCPC Director of Communications said:

“Products like this prey on a parent’s basic instinct to protect their child. But instead of making a toddler safer, they put the child much more at risk. If the strap slips down over the child’s face or neck, there is a serious risk of suffocation or strangulation.

“CCPC sweeps have led to the removal of 100 product listings across various platforms. However, we’re asking the public to remain vigilant and contact us if they see car seat head straps like these being advertised, be it online or in physical stores.”

Dr Katharine Harkin, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, HSE Child Health Public Health said:

“Do not place straps across your child’s forehead in a car seat. They claim to prevent your child’s head from falling forwards or sideways if they fall asleep. There is no evidence that these products are safe to use.

“Car seats are designed to keep your child as safe as possible while travelling. The safest approach is always to use a properly fitted, appropriate car seat and do not use any additional products. The HSE’s mychild.ie has more advice for parents on keeping their child safe while driving and other areas of child safety.”

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) does not recommend the use of devices or accessories that are purchased separately from a child’s car seat.

Christine Hegarty, Road Safety and Education Manager at RSA said:

“Child car seats are highly regulated and vigorously tested and are designed to perform and react in a specific way in the event of a collision. Any device that changes that process is dangerous.”

Advice for consumers

  1. Do not use car seat head straps as they are extremely dangerous.
  2. Product add-ons or accessories for car seats should only be used when they have been tested and approved by the car seat manufacturer.
  3. Using any other accessories may change the performance of the car seat or introduce other hazards during normal use.

New Online Safety Monitor Provides Recommendations to make the Online World Safer for Children and Young People

The first Online Safety Monitor was launched today at an online safety conference hosted by the Children’s Rights Alliance. The conference featured addresses from Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan and David D’Arcy, Digital Services Act Officer for Ireland at the European Commission office in Dublin. At a crunch point with new regulation of online platforms, the Online Safety Monitor provides a baseline analysis of the protections in place and the areas where children in Ireland remain vulnerable online.

“If laws and regulations fail to keep pace with the digital world, it is children and young people who pay the price. Failing to have adequate protections online creates space for predators to hide,” said Noeline Blackwell, Online Safety Coordinator with the Children’s Rights Alliance.

The Online Safety Monitor marks a unique and comprehensive analysis of the current state of children’s online rights; outlining key recommendations across three thematic areas in a single document and laying the groundwork for ongoing monitoring as these rights continue to evolve.

The Online Safety Monitor calls on the Government to:

  • Establish an effective and accessible Public Individual Complaints Mechanism where complaints made by children or involving a child are given priority

 

  • Strengthen oversight of platform compliance with the Digital Services Act to ensure accountability mechanisms are effective and child-centred, and include safety-by-design, transparency, privacy and algorithms

 

  • Lead reform of EU Laws that combat the production, hosting, access and use of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and ensure these laws properly address grooming, encryption, detection and secure storage of both new and existing CSAM

 

  • Introduce targeted initiatives to raise awareness and increase understanding of online harms to children, focusing on child sexual abuse, CSAM, grooming, and sexual exploitation.

Ms. Blackwell continued:

“As we launch the Online Safety Monitor today, several platforms are under investigations in several jurisdictions because of the harms that occurred on their sites. We cannot trust platforms to decide and design their own safety rules for children. These platforms are inherently risky in their set-up, favouring profit over protection. While there have been significant strides in recent years to end this era of self-regulation, there are gaps that ultimately put children at risk.

In Ireland, there is huge public appetite for the Government to stand up to big tech and they have made a start. We have a new law, the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act, a dedicated Online Safety Commissioner and the introduction of legally binding Online Safety Codes. However, children are still being subjected to unnecessary levels of online harm.

The Online Safety Codes offer the first real chance to ensure there are significant consequences for platforms doing too little to safeguard children but in their current form, they give too much scope to platforms to determine their own safety standards. The recommender algorithms these companies designed that feed children harmful content are not included. On top of that, children and young people are still waiting for an accessible individual complaints mechanism that they can turn to when they do experience harms online. Leaving children and their families lost in a maze of complex and inconsistent reporting processes for every site they engage with.”

The Online Safety Monitor places a particular focus on the growing threat of online Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), calling for national and EU action to crackdown on the proliferation of this material.

Ms Blackwell concluded:

“The horrifying reality of an unregulated internet is children are left exposed online to the worst crimes and content you can imagine. Last year, it was estimated that over 300 million children globally were victims of online sexual exploitation. That is 10 cases every second. We have reached a grim milestone, and yet, EU regulation to address this has stalled.

Predators hide behind blind spots that current laws fail to acknowledge sufficiently, and online platforms ignore entirely, and all the while the industry profits rise. Reports of child sexual abuse material in Ireland have skyrocketed in recent years, with Hotline.ie receiving over 29,000 reports in 2023 – the highest number in its history. What should be enjoyable activities, such as chatting with friends online or playing video games, can open the door to some of the worst offences.

Online predators are skilled at identifying young internet users and are ready to exploit them, leading to children being exposed to, or in many cases, sharing their own, explicit content. Just a few minutes online at the wrong time, can have lasting impacts on children and young people beyond the screen including anxiety, depression, PTSD, and struggles with trust and self-esteem.

Despite occurring behind a screen, this is not a victimless crime, and it is not one that will disappear with a power off button. It is essential that our new Government make this an absolute priority and push for stronger EU laws and more effective ways to detect, remove, and prevent this content which has irreversible effects on countless children every minute.

There would be outrage if harms online happened offline, in our communities. Our government must step up to ensure our regulation is as robust and child-centred as possible, and that are significant penalties for platforms if they fail to comply. The online world is being shaped by digital technologies that are developing at a rapid rate. We cannot afford to wait and see what may happen if we don’t take action immediately.”

  • The Online Safety Monitor is available here.

5-year deal for Dublin’s new children’s hospital awarded to Telefónica Tech

Telefónica Tech, a leader in digital transformation and part of the Telefónica Group, has been announced as the successful vendor for the tender to provide numerous infrastructure technology solutions to Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) for the new digital children’s hospital.

When the new children’s hospital opens in 2025, digital technology will be involved in everything from electronic health records to the systems controlling the building. Digitisation fosters information exchange and helps doctors optimise their decisions and provide the best care for patients.

In this five year deal with Children’s Health Ireland, Telefónica Tech UK&I will build and manage the hospital’s IT infrastructure, with a significant focus on cyber security. Telefónica Tech will oversee all servers, storage, security, PCs, printers, workstations on wheels and laptops in the new hospital. The platform will also support the clinical applications that will integrate to the hospital’s new Electronic Patient Record system (powered by EPIC).

Adrian Rath, Chief Technology Officer with Children’s Health Ireland, explains the benefits this partnership will bring to staff working in the new hospital:

“We are delighted to work with Telefónica Tech for the next five years, to create world-class digital infrastructure in a world-class digital hospital. In Children’s Health Ireland, we deliver around 200,000 episodes of care to patients in a year. The new hospital will be an incredible place for clinicians to provide that care to patients. There will be a single sign-on system to greatly improve access to information for clinicians, while a single email system for all staff will make for seamless cross-city collaboration between the new hospital and CHI Urgent Care sites at Connolly and Tallaght. The security solutions provided by Telefónica Tech will enable Children’s Health Ireland to strengthen its cyber security posture against potential cyber. Most importantly, all of this will bring about a safer and better experience for the children, young people and families who use our services”.

Ellen Dickson, VP of Enterprise Health at Telefónica Tech UK&I, said: “The New Children’s Hospital is set to transform children’s healthcare in Ireland as a centre of excellence. The IT infrastructure and services will underpin the vital clinical services and are therefore critical to the success of the hospital. Telefónica Tech UK&I’s Strategic Healthcare Practice has market-leading expertise, thanks to the skills and experience of our staff, and has successfully delivered innovative and complex health IT projects with some of the largest health trusts in the UK.”

Telefónica Tech UK&I is developing the infrastructure technology for the new children’s hospital while the building is under construction, due for completion by the end of October 2024.