AirTag Removable Battery Sparks Child Safety Concerns

[leebroath]

Awww come on !! What bloody next...

Ok so now I'll have to tape up the back of my remote control... just in case the kids open the back and swallow the battery.. wake up Australia

The world has gone mad!

 

[iisdan]

Why are pill bottles considered ok to be push and turn but not air tags? what even is this outrage?

 

[Dented]

I listed things that kill thousands (despite all the strategies to reduce them - a subtle point about rare events and their mitigation) compared to this which kills LESS THAN ONE CHILd a YEAR in a country of 330 million. This is so rare the hysterics and moral flexing in this thread are melting my brain.

Add a screw don’t add a screw. It’s not the point. My point is the insanity of people getting worked up and concluding without evidence that there is a serious design flaw and Apple should have “done something about it”. Hysterics without evidence and a totally irrational way to approach the problem.

Button battery deaths are so rare you could never prove that adding a screw To Apple or Tile or Samsung could reduce that one death a year. So when you confidently claim there is a child’s life in the balance you are talking nonsense. Then moving on to “if it even could theoretically save one life” we are not even having an intelligent discussion we are just shouting at the sky like cavemen chasing off magic spirits.

Earlier in the thread I linked to stats from the CDC for 1998-2010 which actually showed that more than one child was killed per year (15 children in a 12 year period) - and thousands more injured, many very severely and in permanent life-affecting ways. Your calculation of rarity does of course completely ignore those injuries because they’re not convenient to your argument.

The stats also show that the frequency of deaths increased significantly later in the period - it’s not a flat line. Deaths from the more dangerous 3V cells like the CR2032 became more prevalent in the later years, likely because devices containing these cells became more common. The Airtag is about to make them even more common. It is simply nonsense to dismiss this all as some kind of statistical blip without looking at the obvious cause and effect.

It’s not even about adding a screw. Apple are extremely good at design and engineering, I’ve no doubt they could design something far more elegant that wouldn’t cost even the price of the screw. The question is simply whether the Airtag does a good enough job of keeping young hands away from these batteries; if it doesn’t then Apple have a serious problem whether you like it or not.

 

[btrach144]

As a parent, I think this is silly. If you’re going to claim this is a risk then everything is a risk.

watch over your children and you’ll be fine.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

The dangers of button batteries are becoming more of a concern in recent years and even the NHS has a section dedicated to awareness. More and more stories are coming to light of children dying from ingesting these cells and I’m very thankful we don’t rely on tech enthusiasts for guidance as they make very lousy advice specialists.

 

[1rottenapple]

Jeeeez this freaking naysays. Get a life. We have had 2032 battery for decades. I can remove that from my scale yet now its an issue.

So make it nonremovable then!!!! Oppps environmental concerns will then be the issue. Damn if you do, damn if you don't.

 

[1rottenapple]

As a parent, I think this is silly. If you’re going to claim this is a risk then everything is a risk.

watch over your children and you’ll be fine.

I agree let's lock children in a room they might get hit by a car.

 

[1rottenapple]

Surely it’s easier to remove the batteries from your TV remote

I know!

 

[Big Bad D]

And it’s probably the same people complaining when Apple makes other products with non-replaceable batteries…

 

[Schranke]

These batteries are used in a lot of toys but as far as I am aware the battery compartment has to be screwed to stop children opening the device. I can see why this would be a concern with AirTags as I have seen how easy it is to open them up. I’m surprised a company the size of Apple didn’t check this sort of thing at the R&D stage? Their regs department should have pointed this out really. Not sure what the rules are in the US, but Europe is quite strict on this sort of thing as these batteries have caused more than a few infant deaths.

But the whole point is that this is not toys and not intended to be in the hands of small children. You can't simply apply rules from one regulation area to another. By that standart the battery compartment on car keys should be screwed shut as some parents hand a set of keys to a kid to entertain/distract them.

Even the EU isn't so rule crazy that we regulate everything with the thought that small children might get their hands on it...

 

[Schranke]

I have kids mysef so i know exactly how they can get at things but what about led light strip controllers or sound bar controllers they also come with the cr2032 batteries an they just slot into the controllers on a little tray that can just as easily be pulled out if not easier but they don’t get pulled off the shelves over child safety concerns or a big news story made about it

Exactly, I don't get why Airtags get such a uproar going about this and being compared to products designed for small children.

 

[jonnyb098]

I listed things that kill thousands (despite all the strategies to reduce them - a subtle point about rare events and their mitigation) compared to this which kills LESS THAN ONE CHILd a YEAR in a country of 330 million. This is so rare the hysterics and moral flexing in this thread are melting my brain.

Add a screw don’t add a screw. It’s not the point. My point is the insanity of people getting worked up and concluding without evidence that there is a serious design flaw and Apple should have “done something about it”. Hysterics without evidence and a totally irrational way to approach the problem.

Button battery deaths are so rare you could never prove that adding a screw To Apple or Tile or Samsung could reduce that one death a year. So when you confidently claim there is a child’s life in the balance you are talking nonsense. Then moving on to “if it even could theoretically save one life” we are not even having an intelligent discussion we are just shouting at the sky like cavemen chasing off magic spirits.

Don't even bother with that guy....theres no getting through which is beyond scary. This (non)issue is apparently bigger than the many thousands of kids that die from a variety of things way worse than swallowing a battery DAILY (and his 11 year old stats, lmao). If one life was too many then we would all be dead from never leaving our homes to do anything, ever.

 

[1rottenapple]

And it’s probably the same people complaining when Apple makes other products with non-replaceable batteries…

Exactly I'd rather have the cr coin than a non replaceable battery. You can buy a pack of 10 cr2032 at amazon for $7.

 

[G5isAlive]

It always amazes me the number of people willing to offer an opinion on something they literally know nothing about.

I have a number of devices with a 2032 battery (remotes, scales, laser pointers) and I don't recall one that had a screw. The only time I see screws are on child toys and they are often poorly implemented. Just add a screw is apparently easier to say than do right.

Regardless, this thread made me curious on just how easy or hard this is with an actual AirTag. So I tried it on my Key chain Airtag. First outside the case. As an adult that can apply a lot of force, it wasn't that difficult. Not sure it would be easy for a young child though. Putting it back on was more difficult so I can believe those people that said it kept falling off on them lol.

What DID surprise me was I assumed the leather case would make it impossible to spin. Nope. It was MUCH harder but even in the leather case I could eventually get it off with enough force. So much force I doubt seriously a young child could open it at all. But if I had a child I would wrap it once in scotch tape to make the fit even tighter. Or I might consider a case with a clear plastic window or even a solid case. I don't think I would lose much sleep. But then I was the kind of parent that took the responsibility for myself to put power plug covers in, and inside locks on cabinet doors. I didn't scream for industry to take responsibility and impose restrictions on all so that us fewer didnt have to take action ourselves.

 

[Dented]

But the whole point is that this is not toys and not intended to be in the hands of small children.

And the whole point of Airtags is to attach them to items which may become lost or misplaced and end up in unexpected and unintended places - including the hands of small children.

 

[Marshall73]

All the reviews mention that it’s more difficult to get the battery out of the Airtag than the Tile or Samsung tracker. The news can’t have it all ****ing ways now can it?

 

[Dented]

Don't even bother with that guy....theres no getting through which is beyond scary. This (non)issue is apparently bigger than the many thousands of kids that die from a variety of things way worse

That’s a complete lie, I’ve never suggested that a kids death from a battery is any more or less important than any other death. Others have inferred that somehow because we can’t stop all deaths we shouldn’t bother stopping any and that’s nonsense. Where there is such a simple and obvious way to prevent kids coming to harm with Airtags, Apple have a moral and I suspect legal duty to put that in place.

than swallowing a battery DAILY (and his 11 year old stats, lmao). If one life was too many then we would all be dead from never leaving our homes to do anything, ever.

Risk and reward, cost and benefit. Even one life lost in return for an insignificant saving on Apple’s bill of parts IS too many.

Oh and since you don’t like my eleven year old stats (brought up in direct answer to someone suggesting this never happened in the nineties) here’s a couple of more recent facts -

Safe Kids reports these hard facts surrounding button battery ingestion:

• Every year, more than 2,800 kids are treated in emergency rooms after swallowing button batteries; that's one child every three hours
• The number of serious injuries or deaths caused by button batteries has increased nine-fold in the last decade

From https://www.nsc.org/home-safety/safety-topics/child-safety/button-batteries

 

[WitchDrAsh2]

It always amazes me the number of people willing to offer an opinion on something they literally know nothing about.

My concern is that as time goes on these spin style locks tend to become lose, we had some on the back of some alarm keyfobs and after a couple of years they fell off pretty much whenever you picked them up.

We wrapped them in a layer of tape to prevent it and because we had our first young child and was concerned about them getting one that had accidentally fallen out.

there’s a risk here, is the AirTag going to kill hundreds per year, no, is bringing it into your house the same as spraying your kids with arsenic, of course not.

My issue with it is that unlike remotes or a few other devices Apple are looking to sell a lot of these devices to each user and have them cover all their gear with them, and I’ve seen people I follow of Twitter saying they’ve order 8/12+ of them. Then if a lot of their friends also have them there is a much higher exposure to these devices than a single remote (for example).

This is a small issue, but it’s not a non-issue, Apple could have added a screw, a pin push lock, or some other mechanism to make it physically impossible to open, but they didn’t, a lot of people on this thread show they don’t understand that watch batteries main problem isn’t choking and those two things combined add risk.

Yes there’s climate change, murder, crazy people with machine guns out there, but that isn’t an excuse for poor design, it would have taken Apple a very small amount of effort to secure these devices they chose a method that has never been particularly successful long time probably because it fitted the look of the device, it was, in my opinion, a massive design blunder that only takes 1 child opening one they found in a park and then swallowing the battery to cause some significant reputational damage.

we indulged them with the stupidity of the previous Apple TV remote, but I honestly believe that Apple has chosen looks over safety in this instance, regardless of the risk being low, it could have been much lower

 

[Schranke]

And the whole point of Airtags is to attach them to items which may become lost or misplaced and end up in unexpected and unintended places - including the hands of small children.

Then keep an eye on the children? I am not saying you should be a hawk and watch them constantly, but a kid should not be left without supervision in a an unsafe environment. And lets just say you are at home, kids in the living room and you are going to the kitchen, we assume your livingroom is kid friendly, no device containing batteries left lying around (plenty of remotes for speakers and what not use coincell batteries, super easy to get into).
What are the chances that you have misplaced you bag, keys or what ever you attach an Airtag on? I will say small, and in the case of a bag, if you place it with easy access for a child and you know you have something unsafe in/on it, that's you endangering the kid, not what ever product you might have.
Then what if its the keys... If you misplaced them, chances are that they are not easy accessible for a kid and not out in the open. Secondly, this still requires the child to find it and then manage to open it. And then we are talking the super small chance that the kid actually eats it...
Souch a stretch, and if parents are concerned about this I strongly suspect that they are not doing enough to stimulate the kid, not hard to safe toys laying around. And if you don't, get that instead of a freaking Airtag.

 

[cmaier]

Can any car key be opened with a push and twist?

My Tesla fob can be opened with a finger nail.

 

[Dented]

Then keep an eye on the children? I am not saying you should be a hawk and watch them constantly, but a kid should not be left without supervision in a an unsafe environment. And lets just say you are at home, kids in the living room and you are going to the kitchen, we assume your livingroom is kid friendly, no device containing batteries left lying around (plenty of remotes for speakers and what not use coincell batteries, super easy to get into).
What are the chances that you have misplaced you bag, keys or what ever you attach an Airtag on? I will say small, and in the case of a bag, if you place it with easy access for a child and you know you have something unsafe in/on it, that's you endangering the kid, not what ever product you might have.
Then what if its the keys... If you misplaced them, chances are that they are not easy accessible for a kid and not out in the open. Secondly, this still requires the child to find it and then manage to open it. And then we are talking the super small chance that the kid actually eats it...
Souch a stretch, and if parents are concerned about this I strongly suspect that they are not doing enough to stimulate the kid, not hard to safe toys laying around. And if you don't, get that instead of a freaking Airtag.

And again, for the hard of understanding, who says it’s my airtag?

As a parent I don’t ever have to ever heard of an airtag, let alone understand what it is, let alone have purchased one, before my child happens to find somebody else’s. You know, that they’ve lost.

 

[Dented]

My Tesla fob can be opened with a finger nail.

Frankly that doesn’t surprise me at all.

 

[Shreducator]

Perfect Apple can now sell a child proof accessory.

 

[G5isAlive]

My concern is that as time goes on these spin style locks tend to become lose, we had some on the back of some alarm keyfobs and after a couple of years they fell off pretty much whenever you picked them up.

We wrapped them in a layer of tape to prevent it and because we had our first young child and was concerned about them getting one that had accidentally fallen out.

there’s a risk here, is the AirTag going to kill hundreds per year, no, is bringing it into your house the same as spraying your kids with arsenic, of course not.

My issue with it is that unlike remotes or a few other devices Apple are looking to sell a lot of these devices to each user and have them cover all their gear with them, and I’ve seen people I follow of Twitter saying they’ve order 8/12+ of them. Then if a lot of their friends also have them there is a much higher exposure to these devices than a single remote (for example).

This is a small issue, but it’s not a non-issue, Apple could have added a screw, a pin push lock, or some other mechanism to make it physically impossible to open, but they didn’t, a lot of people on this thread show they don’t understand that watch batteries main problem isn’t choking and those two things combined add risk.

Yes there’s climate change, murder, crazy people with machine guns out there, but that isn’t an excuse for poor design, it would have taken Apple a very small amount of effort to secure these devices they chose a method that has never been particularly successful long time probably because it fitted the look of the device, it was, in my opinion, a massive design blunder that only takes 1 child opening one they found in a park and then swallowing the battery to cause some significant reputational damage.

we indulged them with the stupidity of the previous Apple TV remote, but I honestly believe that Apple has chosen looks over safety in this instance, regardless of the risk being low, it could have been much lower

Some interesting points. What is your argument against why concerned parents should not just put their tags in closed cases?

You could say, they can't control the cases other people use that might visit their homes. Shrugs. At some point, if someone comes in with an Airtag hanging off their bag such that a child can get to it, maybe the parent could also see it and make sure its out of reach?

Your numbers argument regarding exposure falls apart when you consider that yes, some people will get a lot, but a lot more people will get none, but almost every house has at least one device (remote) with this style battery without the protection measures you mention.

Finally, neither you nor I are design engineers. It is easy to say things like how simple it would have been for apple to incorporate a screw or what not, but I dont think its really that easy to implement in this design. Judging from the tear down, there are physical size constraint limits. So make it bigger you say. There would be safety downsides of that as well.

It's just not a perfect world. It is easier to say how others should make it perfect for us, apparently harder for us to take personal responsibility.

 

[G5isAlive]

That’s a complete lie, I’ve never suggested that a kids death from a battery is any more or less important than any other death. Others have inferred that somehow because we can’t stop all deaths we shouldn’t bother stopping any and that’s nonsense. Where there is such a simple and obvious way to prevent kids coming to harm with Airtags, Apple have a moral and I suspect legal duty to put that in place.

Risk and reward, cost and benefit. Even one life lost in return for an insignificant saving on Apple’s bill of parts IS too many.

Oh and since you don’t like my eleven year old stats (brought up in direct answer to someone suggesting this never happened in the nineties) here’s a couple of more recent facts -


From https://www.nsc.org/home-safety/safety-topics/child-safety/button-batteries

It is for the courts/regulators to decide if Apple met their legal responsibilities, not couch lawyers. But I would not bet against Apple being legally in the right in the vast majority of districts.

In your estimation what would the cost of your new and improved design? You suggest it's insignificant. I assume you have some hard numbers, otherwise you are grandstanding.