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AirTag Removable Battery Sparks Child Safety Concerns

LeeW said:
What's your point? The issue here is not about where your AirTag is, the issue is knowing where your child is and what they are doing.
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You won’t know where your child is at all times because you have other things to do like cooking, laundry, house work, using the toilet etc It’s not possible to be with them 24 hours a day. You’ll have an idea of what room they are in but you won’t know exactly what they are doing at all times.
 
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WitchDrAsh2 said:
But what you said fit perfectly with my argument Apple generated the design from beginning to end and they chose not to implement a system that means a non-damaged device is inaccessible to anyone without some sort of tool,
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Yup, you hit the nail on the head.

Someone in this thread mentioned TV remote controls. So I had a look around my house and the only remotes I found that took button cells were Apple ones... The aluminium one that came with my Apple TV 3 needs a coin to twist open (couldn't budge it without), the older white plastic one (that I think came with a ~2008 Mac) had a little, flush button that needed pushing in with a bent paperclip or suchlike to release the latch...

So this is a design regression for Apple - the danger from these coin cells (which, for the nth time, is ***not*** choking, but their ability to electrolytically convert your bodily fluids into drain cleaner - see chemistry 101) has been well publicised and was probably the reason that Apple went the extra mile with the older products.

Apple really, really fancy themselves as ace designers and charge premium prices for the privilege - so they should be held to high standards of attention to detail. This is the sort of unforced error that you'd only expect from a cheap product from the nether regions of wish.com.
 
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Shanghaichica said:
Well all the videos I’ve seen required a tool to open it. You can’t open it with your finger.
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Cleverly, even with the cover open the battery is still wedged into the Samsung tag and requires a screwdriver or similar to free it, so still unlikely anyone’s going to come to harm even when it’s open. Contrast to the Airtag where the battery looks to be immediately free as soon as the cover’s given a twist.
 
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whatgift said:
Went into a JB HIFI yesterday (large Australian electronics retailer) and they have pulled airtags from shelves as well, it looks like this is going to be a thing :(.
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Looks like they're all trying to 'out-virtue-signal' each other. Why wasn't there the same concern with Tiles... which they've all been selling for over 5 years?

I just knew someone would pull this one... but so should have Apple, so I hope they have a strategy to deal with this.
 
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mattdeezy said:
My friends kid almost died from swallowing a button battery. Many kids have actually died from swallowing button batteries. They are really dangerous. Thats why Dyson heater remotes, pokemon go buttons and many other devices that use these batteries have a small screw that fixes the cover in place.

Im not sure how easy it is to open an airtag yet as mine are just shipping so I will reserve judgement on their design however if they are easily opened, apple has made a dangerous mistake.

The suggestion from many on here that say "supervise your children" clearly don't have kids.
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So i got an airtag today and i feel like the airtag itself is too easy to open to be considered safe to have around children. However, I put it in a Belkin secure keyring case and with that on its impossible to open the airtag and get the battery out.
 
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leman said:
Exactly my point. They have been around for a week and now there are some people claiming (wrongfully btw.) that they "fall apart in pockets all the time", that they could be easily opened by a toddler and that they are a significant hazard to chill safety.



Hoel or not hole, I would speculate that due to it's size and shape, a toddler is much more likely to injest a pen cover than an AirTag. And a trip to ER is a trip to ER.

P.S. There are cases of children choking on a tampon. Which again, due to it's shape, size and accessibility is obviously a child safety hazard. What now, ban female hygiene products?
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You have completely missed the point. A tampon or a ballpoint pen lid don't burn holes in your oesophagus/stomach. This isn't about choking hazard.

www.choice.com.au

The dangers of button batteries to children | CHOICE

A button battery can cause severe internal burns if swallowed by a child. Know the symptoms and the risks.
www.choice.com.au www.choice.com.au
 
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Stuart in Oz said:
Morning TV news (it's just past 7am here in Sydney) is reporting that the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) has ordered AirTags pulled from sale across Australia due to product safety concerns, and that they have spoken to Apple who are working to have a redesigned model available by July.
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Good news, well done oz for taking a stand. I’d be surprised if they’re the last to do so. No doubt this tweaked new model will be released everywhere and the first gen airtag will become something of a limited edition.

Amazing that Apple have gotten themselves in this position after all those years in development.
 
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Airtags are not designed for children, they are not a toy for children thus claiming they are a danger to children is a mute point. If Airtags were specifically designed for children to use then yes there is a requirment to make then child safe but as they are not designed for children, a retailer removing them from the shelves because they fear the airtags are a danger to child is absurd.

Lego poses more of a danger to children but i do not see retailers removing lego from the shevles. Silly putty and playdoh poses more of a danger to children but again I do not see retailers removing these from the shelves.

As others have said, a child is more like to swallow the thing than take it apart. It would seem the retailer in question is trying to negate parents responsibilities and put the responsibilites on Apple.
 
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laptech said:
Airtags are not designed for children, they are not a toy for children thus claiming they are a danger to children is a mute point. If Airtags were specifically designed for children to use then yes there is a requirment to make then child safe but as they are not designed for children, a retailer removing them from the shelves because they fear the airtags are a danger to child is absurd.

Lego poses more of a danger to children but i do not see retailers removing lego from the shevles. Silly putty and playdoh poses more of a danger to children but again I do not see retailers removing these from the shelves.

As others have said, a child is more like to swallow the thing than take it apart. It would seem the retailer in question is trying to negate parents responsibilities and put the responsibilites on Apple.
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Read the thread, all your points have been addressed and debunked multiple times. It’s now not just one retailer but all retailers in Australia at the direction of their consumer regulator. It seems highly likely that other regulators will follow, and with good reason.
 
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laptech said:
Airtags are not designed for children, they are not a toy for children thus claiming they are a danger to children is a mute point. If Airtags were specifically designed for children to use then yes there is a requirment to make then child safe but as they are not designed for children, a retailer removing them from the shelves because they fear the airtags are a danger to child is absurd.

Lego poses more of a danger to children but i do not see retailers removing lego from the shevles. Silly putty and playdoh poses more of a danger to children but again I do not see retailers removing these from the shelves.

As others have said, a child is more like to swallow the thing than take it apart. It would seem the retailer in question is trying to negate parents responsibilities and put the responsibilites on Apple.
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I don’t think Apple specify who AirTags are aimed at in their marketing. The devices are for tracking and it’s up to the user to decide what they put them on and that can include objects children come into contact with. I don’t think they need to remove them, but a lot more needs to be done to make parents aware of the dangers as these contain button batteries that are easy to expose. I would hope most parents are aware of the dangers as there is a massive amount of awareness out there, but unless this is advertised with AirTags, people may not be aware they even contain these sorts of batteries. Nothing wrong with awareness and claiming Apple or parents is just futile. Just add it to the warnings in the product
 
Peloton exercise bike sales are being suspended because a kid got caught up in one and died.

Oh, Lawn Darts!

=============

So, I just had to help a coworker get the lid off of a prescription bottle. It's a standard safety lid and neither she nor another coworker could make it open.

As much as I think that parents need to take responsibility for what they allow in their children's environs, Ido wonder what happened in Apple's design and testing cycle that let this sort of issue make it through safety vetting.
 
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LeeW said:
What's your point? The issue here is not about where your AirTag is, the issue is knowing where your child is and what they are doing.
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So a parent should know where their child is and what they are doing?
Obviously you are not a parent.
And if a parent should know where their child is, I am assuming they have the same frame of mind to know where all their inanimate object are too and what they are doing. So no need for an air tag.
What if they want to put an airtag on their kid incase they don't know what their child is up to or where they are :)

In seriousness though as a designer it is better to failsafe - would it not?
Apple has a couple of design issues
  1. Lets not put a hole in the airtag so that customers are forced to buy an airtag loop. If there was a hole, a parent could secure it to any item and child would not be able to have a small object, hence failing safe but not attractive to Apple because they wouldn't sell so many airtag loops.
  2. In the few videos that I have seen and articles I have read, it looks like it is easy to remove the cover. Again a design flaw, for something that only gets changed once a year or two, requiring a screwdriver or watch back removal tool of sorts wouldn't be too onerous on a parent when needing to change the battery. Again failsafe.
Apple aren't dumb and the above is pretty obvious to them. They simply chose a different path of looks and accessories.
 
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MacRumors said:


More than a week following their international debut, Apple's AirTag item tracker is now facing child safety concerns about its replaceable battery.

airtag-battery-pry-apart.jpg

AirTags feature a standard replaceable CR2032 coin-cell battery that Apple says can power an AirTag for an entire year. The battery in an AirTag can be removed by pushing down and twisting the AirTag's back-plate, a fairly straightforward and easy process.

However, the easy battery replacement process has prompted concerns that a child could access the battery and potentially pose a safety risk to themselves. As reported by Gizmodo, concerns are high enough to have caused major Australian retailer Officeworks to temporarily pull AirTags from its shelves.

The retailer hasn't confirmed the exact reason, although the report notes that multiple Reddit users have said that an Officeworks representative confirmed the retailer's concerns over child safety.
Furthermore, in a statement given to Gizmodo, Apple preemptively confirmed that the battery replacement process is at the center of the retail chain's decision to pull AirTags from its shelf temporarily.
Officeworks says that AirTags will stay off its shelves until "further guidance is provided from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission," which happens to be the same authority currently investigating Apple over claims of anti-competitive market behavior.

Australian regulations require that any consumer good that features a battery compartment that's accessible to the consumer, whether or not the battery is intended to be replaced, must "be designed to ensure the compartment is resistant to being opened by young children." Regulations also state that the battery compartment must feature "screws or similar fasteners used to secure the door."

AirTags don't feature any screws visible to the consumer. However, to access the battery compartment, the user must first press down and twist the back plate. So, while there are definite concerns, it's unlikely AirTags violates any direct regulatory clause. Instead, it's likely that a lack of clarity regarding how Apple's AirTags fit with the existing regulations has caused the retailer to pull them.

Article Link: AirTag Removable Battery Sparks Child Safety Concerns
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If a child opens its mouth wide enough it can swallow an iPhone 12 mini and choke to death for it. Irresponsible!!!
 
laptech said:
Airtags are not designed for children, they are not a toy for children thus claiming they are a danger to children is a mute point. If Airtags were specifically designed for children to use then yes there is a requirment to make then child safe but as they are not designed for children, a retailer removing them from the shelves because they fear the airtags are a danger to child is absurd.

Lego poses more of a danger to children but i do not see retailers removing lego from the shevles. Silly putty and playdoh poses more of a danger to children but again I do not see retailers removing these from the shelves.

When my kids were young, I knew where they were and couldn't understand how a kid would manage to get a button cell ba. It would seem the retailer in question is trying to negate parents responsibilities and put the responsibilites on Apple.
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All of what you put are strawman arguments.

Airtags are not designed for children hence if they are unsafe that is ok - Fail
Lego poses more of a danger to children - lego on the most part has void areas that if lodged in a windpipe would likely still let air through. A button cell battery on the other hand does kill children, usually by the time you know something is up it is already too late - Fail


The retailer in question was presented with a potential safety hazard and to avoid a lawsuit, decided to take the items off the shelf to give them time to work with the relevant safety board to check they are safe before returning them to sale.

There are many things in this world that are unsafe for kids and most parents try their best and succeed.
Some parents on the other hand don't take enough care and hence some safety choices may seem over the top to you and me.

Would a small screw to secure the back be too much to ask or even just enough friction that needs a screwdriver to pry it open?
 
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Shanghaichica said:
You won’t know where your child is at all times because you have other things to do like cooking, laundry, house work, using the toilet etc It’s not possible to be with them 24 hours a day. You’ll have an idea of what room they are in but you won’t know exactly what they are doing at all times.
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If this is the position you are in, and you think an AirTag could pose a threat to your child, DON'T BUY ANY AirTags. No harm, no foul.
 
LeeW said:
Yes, I am, you are not special in being a parent. Cut the BS thinking that because there are more responsible adults out there they cannot be parents.
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If you’re going to try and tell me that you had/have eyes on all of your children at all times for every second of their first 3-4 years without a single break in concentration or a moment‘s distraction, I’m going to call you a liar.

I’m sure you have been a very responsible parent and done your absolute best, but you’re not special in that either. The vast majority of parents do their absolute best every day, including the parents to the thousands of kids who suffer injuries or worse from button cell batteries every year. Just consider yourself fortunate that yours weren’t amongst them, I certainly do.
 
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Phone Junky said:
If this is the position you are in, and you think an AirTag could pose a threat to your child, DON'T BUY ANY AirTags. No harm, no foul.
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It’s the position most parents are in, and for the last time, no parent has to purchase an airtag for a child to encounter someone else’s airtag, or the battery that’s fallen out of it for that matter.
 
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Dented said:
It’s the position most parents are in, and for the last time, no parent has to purchase an airtag for a child to encounter someone else’s airtag, or the battery that’s fallen out of it for that matter.
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And for that matter, a child can encounter a plethora of other "dangerous" items on any given day. AirTags aren't special in that regard.

Can the battery in an AirTag be dangerous to a child? Absolutely. Is this something that needs to be pointed out to any responsible adult? I don't think so.
 
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