AirTag Removable Battery Sparks Child Safety Concerns

More than a week following their international launching, Apples AirTag item tracker is now dealing with child safety concerns about its replaceable battery.
AirTags include a standard changeable CR2032 coin-cell battery that Apple states can power an AirTag for a whole year. The battery in an AirTag can be gotten rid of by pressing down and twisting the AirTags back-plate, a relatively straightforward and easy process.
However, the easy battery replacement process has actually prompted issues that a kid might access the battery and possibly pose a security threat to themselves. As reported by Gizmodo, issues are high enough to have actually caused significant Australian merchant Officeworks to temporarily pull AirTags from its shelves.
The seller hasnt confirmed the specific factor, although the report notes that numerous Reddit users have actually stated that an Officeworks representative validated the retailers issues over kid security.
” Staff at the counter might see on their system that they had some in stock, and one employee even remembered offering them on Friday, however they could not find them today,” the user wrote in a post.
They went onto say that an Officeworks agent informed them that the AirTags were removed due to safety concerns, particularly concerning how simple it is for the button-cell battery to be eliminated by a kid.
Furthermore, in a declaration provided to Gizmodo, Apple preemptively confirmed that the battery replacement process is at the center of the retail chains choice to pull AirTags from its shelf momentarily.
” AirTag is created to fulfill global child safety standards, consisting of those in Australia, by needing a two action push-and-turn mechanism to access the user-replaceable battery,” an Apple representative stated in an email to Gizmodo Australia.
” We are following the regulations closely and are working to ensure that our items will meet or surpass brand-new standards, consisting of those for package labelling, well ahead of the timeline needed.”
Officeworks states that AirTags will remain off its shelves until “more assistance is supplied from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,” which happens to be the exact same authority currently investigating Apple over claims of anti-competitive market habits.
Australian guidelines need that any consumer good that features a battery compartment thats accessible to the customer, whether the battery is intended to be changed, must “be designed to make sure the compartment is resistant to being opened by young children.” Regulations likewise state that the battery compartment should feature “screws or comparable fasteners used to protect the door.”
AirTags do not include any screws visible to the consumer. To access the battery compartment, the user should initially press down and twist the back plate. So, while there are guaranteed issues, its not likely AirTags breaks any direct regulatory stipulation. Rather, its likely that an absence of clearness concerning how Apples AirTags fit with the existing policies has triggered the retailer to pull them.

AirTags dont include any screws visible to the consumer. To access the battery compartment, the user needs to initially push down and twist the back plate. Instead, its most likely that a lack of clearness regarding how Apples AirTags fit with the existing guidelines has actually caused the retailer to pull them.