Seoul Metro Government Finds Hazardous Substances in Children’s Products Sold on Chinese Online Shopping Platforms

◀ Anchor ▶

While Chinese online shopping platforms are launching an ultra-low price offensive, consumer complaints are rising one after another.

Therefore, the Seoul Metropolitan Government conducted safety tests on children’s products sold on these platforms.

As a result, harmful substances that were significantly higher than the standard were found in half of the 22 tested.

Here is reporter Song Seo-young’s report.

◀ Statement ▶

A lot of shoe accessories, called jibbitz.

Real products cost 5,000 to 6,000 each, but AliExpress charges 1,000 won for 20 pieces.

You can also buy car sunshades with characters on them for about 1,000 won.

Since Chinese shopping platforms such as Ali and Temu have launched price offensives, the number of domestic users has exceeded 17 million.

But dissatisfaction is also increasing.

Consumer damage consultations related to AliExpress almost tripled from 228 in 2022 to 673 last year.

[김경미/서울시 공정경제담당관]

“Especially, in the case of Chinese platforms, quality complaints were found to be high, unlike other overseas platforms.”

Starting this month, the Seoul Metropolitan Government began conducting safety tests on products sold at Ali and Temu every week by selecting products that are in high demand.

Ahead of Children’s Day, 22 types of children’s products were selected for analysis.

As a result, there were dangerous substances in 11 products, half of them, which were much higher than the standard.

In particular, it was found that 7 out of 16 shoe decorations and sunscreen were more than 300 times higher than the standard level of phthalate plastic, a harmful substance that causes infertility.

In addition, some had lead content that was more than 33 times the standard.

It’s not just the materials that are the problem.

In Korea, such small parts must be made so that they do not separate to prevent swallowing accidents by children.

However, the items seized this time were not like that.

There were also products whose parts could break into pieces with even a small amount of force, which could cause a suffocation accident.

[안혜리/소비자공익네트워크 사무국장]

“When we buy children’s products through Ali and Temu, we believe that it would be appropriate to do a proper check for certification and not to buy extremely cheap products that are outside the scope of normal transactions .”

Seoul plans to continuously release information such as search items, sales locations, and hazardous materials found on the Seoul city website.

In addition, we decided to expand the testing area to various overseas platforms, including Ali and Temu.

This is a Young Song from MBC News.

Video broadcast: Kwan-ho Lee / Video editing: Kwan-sun Kim / Photo provided by: Seoul City Hall