Parents in Australia Warned to Keep AirTags Away From Children Due to Battery Choking Hazard

[macduke]

Yeah, for people who aren't parents or don't know, these things are pretty terrifying and it can be a rather painful and horrible death. I remember being somewhat concerned about it when purchasing, but considering that my kids are no longer toddlers and don't randomly eat stuff, I figured it was reasonably safe to have these in our house now. But I do think the mechanism should be a bit harder to open. However, you'd be amazed at how many other things use these button cells and don't have them properly secured. Even toys and books sometimes. It was kinda ridiculous. I would always check that and make sure they were behind tiny screw doors on toys and when disposing, I'd always wrap them several times in tape before throwing away. I actually recently ordered some new ones for my Ecobee temperature sensors and noticed that some brands now offer them with a really bitter coating like Nintendo Switch games and I think that should be the standard moving forward as a last defense against being swallowed.

 

[w5jck]

Young children, being so young, have parents for a reason; they don't make good decisions a lot of the time. They learn over time, but they need parents to keep them from eating everything they pick up off the floor, etc. However, young children are masterful at figuring out how to foil "child-proof" mechanisms. The joke in the US is, if you can't get the lid off your child-proofed bottle of medicine hand it to a 4 year old because they can easily remove it.

 

[sparkinstx]

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Just use a hard to open case or fob. Parents are very used to having to keep things out of the reach of kids, so long as they know they have to.

I have one in the Belkin holder (the plastic one with two halves that rotate and click together). It's difficult for an adult to get apart, let alone a child. One thing where the Tiles with replaceable batteries have it over the AirTags is the battery cover (the corner of the case) - it's very secure.

 

[edvj]

The Danish School Where Children Play With Knives

 

[patrickbarnes]

The whole AirTag looks like a slightly bigger battery to begin with. Maybe worth securing it in some sort of holder if it’s around kids.

 

[sparkinstx]

I'd say we give kids small batteries until natural selection takes it course and solves this problem. /s

I'm okay with your sarc tag.

 

[Euroamerican]

Time to ban "coin" batteries. After all, "if it saves just one life"...............

Hard candies too.

 

[buckwheet]

It would help find the dingo, anyway...
(Sorry, I know, not funny)

 

[ikramerica]

I'm glad that this issue is getting some attention. Coin cell batteries are very dangerous to young kids and I'm concerned that the locking mechanism on AirTags doesn't fully prevent them being opened accidentally. They've come apart in my pocket a few times, releasing the battery, just by being squeezed between things in my pocket:

AirTag came apart in my pocket

AirTag design flaw? It seems like the battery cover comes off much too easily! When I got home this evening and reached into my pocket for my keys, I found the AirTag battery cover and its battery had detached themselves.

forums.macrumors.com

If that’s the case, Apple needs to recall them.

Moof!

 

[ikramerica]

So, more dangerous than guns? Maybe they are, because people seem to want to sprinkle them around hither and yon.

Only sell them to people 18 or 21 and over then and make sure parents know they are obligated to keep them out of the sprouts' hands.

And then they you lose the item near a toddler?

 

[ikramerica]

Young children, being so young, have parents for a reason; they don't make good decisions a lot of the time. They learn over time, but they need parents to keep them from eating everything they pick up off the floor, etc. However, young children are masterful at figuring out how to foil "child-proof" mechanisms. The joke in the US is, if you can't get the lid off your child-proofed bottle of medicine hand it to a 4 year old because they can easily remove it.

I have video of my not yet walking toddler crawling over to a brand new “childproof” latch on a cabinet, pulling himself up, and removing it in about 5 seconds. And this was a national brand of childproofing products.

 

[Mousse]

I don't understand the reasoning behind making the battery changable without tools, especially since you'd need to do so only once a year. If you had to replace it every week, then yeah, make it easy to replace. But once every year?? Come on man, make it difficult so we would have to watch a YouTube video to show us how to replace the battery.?

Of course, I already know the reason why. Having a screw, visible tab wouldn't be purdy.

 

[Reason077]

If that’s the case, Apple needs to recall them.

Moof!

I have no doubt they are compliant with regulations, so a recall probably isn't justified. But I do think that Apple could have done better, and I hope that they improve this aspect of the design on future revisions/products.

A quick fix would be to use the new "child safe" coin cells which have a bitter tasting coating. Those would probably cost Apple about 1c more and would provide some protection even after a cell is removed from the AirTag.

 

[chris1958]

kids are dumb. really dumb

Kids are not dumb but curious. And curiosity not only kills cats.

 

[ikramerica]

I have no doubt they are compliant with regulations, so a recall probably isn't justified. But I do think that Apple could have done better, and I hope that they improve this aspect of the design on future revisions/products.

A quick fix would be to use the new "child safe" coin cells which have a bitter tasting coating. Those would probably cost Apple about 1c more and would provide some protection even after a cell is removed from the AirTag.

Child safety recalls happen with compliant products too.

The issue I see is the failure to include an indicator for when it is closed.

We have a few products at home with a rotate to open cell battery. They have a mark on them for locked and unlocked with a universal padlock lock symbol. They also require a coin or fat screwdriver to rotate them open.

And my car keys need to be pried apart, though maybe a resourceful toddler could figure that out. Takes a lot if force in just the right spot.

 

[ikramerica]

Time to ban "coin" batteries. After all, "if it saves just one life"...............

Hard candies too.

When my brother was small a shop owner gave him a hard candy as a treat without asking my mom.

She’s driving the car home, looks back at the car seat because he was too quiet, sees he’s gone white. Had to pull over and hold him upside down and whack his back to get the thing out.

Don’t ban hard candies. Just stupid people.

 

[Craigwilliam]

From the sound of things, I guess parents just need to be more conscious about these batteries in general. So it's less of an issue with AirTags as it is an issue with the batteries though I could understand how some may not be aware that AirTags use coin batteries.
It will likely be to the annoyance of some but I could see why Apple may well opt for the approach they took with the AirPods in a future revision of the product. Just design something that is glued in, and totally unserviceable charged with some sort of Qi solution just to make the product safer as I could imagine AirTags are probably more likely to be swallowed whole by unsuspecting children than they are to accidentally remove the batteries and swallow those instead.

 

[keifer123]

kids are dumb. really dumb

You were a kid once. It is not the fact that kids are dumb. How about the parents who do not know that an AirTag could be a choke hazard for the kids?

 

[MrSkoTA]

I seem to have missed that there is a warning with every coin you receive in Australia. Or did they get rid of them?

 

[svish]

Need not be AirTags in particular. Should be always careful. Small things that children can swallow may always be around the house.

 

[topdrawer]

The Danish School Where Children Play With Knives

but do they swallow batteries?

 

[tee-tz]

Sometimes I wonder how we made it this far.....

True. And yet the irony is actually that after generations of life we suddenly need a device to track our keys

 

[farewelwilliams]

You were a kid once. It is not the fact that kids are dumb. How about the parents who do not know that an AirTag could be a choke hazard for the kids?

No, fact is kids are dumb which requires parents to supervise them.

 

[Arbuthnott]

In May, a major Australian retailer took AirTags off its shelves in response to concerns that the Bluetooth-enabled item tracking device could pose a threat to children due to the size and "easy" access to its battery. Now, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is officially slapping Apple's AirTag with a warning.

[…]​

Article Link: Parents in Australia Warned to Keep AirTags Away From Children Due to Battery Choking Hazard

Of course the warning is sensible, but parents shouldn’t need to be reminded!

The mentality behind removing them from the shelf is the same that will see every fishpond and natural water fenced off, every cliff and fall fenced, and fenced with warnings to not climb trees, and finally warnings around every wheel on every vehicle about a potential nip point, do not put fingers here.

At some point the forces of evolution are going to deal with some people eventually.

 

[bgillander]

Seems hard to open.
Seems hard to swallow.
Kids.

(CR2032 battery, ø20mm x 3 mm, a diameter between a 1 cent and a 5 cent coin, about double the thickness of a 1 cent coin)

Your comment about the size made me look into Australian coins and it looks like their 5 cent coin is still in use and has a diameter of 19.41 mm and a thickness of 1.3 mm.

I wonder if they will require a warning on the coins, as the choking hazard should be similar.

I remember working in a hardware store as a teenager and receiving a shipment of hammers that had the usual “wear eye protection” warning label, but also had a warning that it was dangerous to swing at people and was not a toy. At that point I figured we were doomed as a species if they had to give everyone that warning.

That said, it is strange that Apple has made it rather difficult to open most of their products and now the complaint is that this is too easy to open. Damned if you do…