National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 71‑8:2026. It supersedes BS EN 71‑8:2018, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee CW/15, Safety of toys.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

This publication has been prepared under a mandate given to the European Standards Organizations by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association. It is intended to support requirements of the EU legislation detailed in the European Foreword. A European Annex, usually Annex ZA or ZZ, describes how this publication relates to that EU legislation.

For the Great Britain market (England, Scotland and Wales), if UK Government has designated this publication for conformity with UKCA marking (or similar) legislation, it may contain an additional National Annex. Where such a National Annex exists, it shows the correlation between this publication and the relevant UK legislation. If there is no National Annex of this kind, the relevant Annex ZA or ZZ in the body of the European text will indicate the relationship to UK regulation applicable in Great Britain. References to EU legislation may need to be read in accordance with the UK designation and the applicable UK law. Further information on designated standards can be found at www.bsigroup.com/standardsandregulation.

For the Northern Ireland market, UK law will continue to implement relevant EU law subject to periodic confirmation. Therefore Annex ZA/ZZ in the European text, and references to EU legislation, are still valid for this market.

UK Government is responsible for legislation. For information on legislation and policies relating to that legislation, consult the relevant pages of www.gov.uk.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 January 2026.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 10 November 2025.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 71‑8:2026) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 52 “Safety of toys”, the secretariat of which is held by DS.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by July 2026, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by January 2027.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN 71‑8:2018.

This document has been prepared under a standardization request addressed to CEN by the European Commission. The Standing Committee of the EFTA States subsequently approves these requests for its Member States.

For the relationship with EU Legislation, see informative Annex ZA, which is an integral part of this document.

This document constitutes the eighth part of the EN 71 series of standards on safety of toys.

EN 71, Safety of toys, consists of the following parts:

Part 1: Mechanical and physical properties;
Part 2: Flammability;
Part 3: Migration of certain elements;
Part 4: Experimental sets for chemistry and related activities;
Part 5: Chemical toys (sets) other than experimental sets;
Part 7: Finger paints — Requirements and test methods;
Part 8: Activity toys for domestic use (this document);
Part 10: Organic chemical compounds — Sample preparation and extraction;
Part 11: Organic chemical compounds — Methods of analysis;
Part 12: N-Nitrosamines and N-nitrosatable substances;
Part 13: Olfactory board games, cosmetic kits and gustative games;
Part 14: Trampolines for domestic use;
Part 15: Formamide in foam toy materials (content);
Part 16: Certain chlorinated phosphorus flame retardants (TCEP, TCPP, TDCP) in toy materials;
Part 17: Certain isothiazolinones (MIT, CIT, BIT) in aqueous toy materials;
Part 18: Phenol in aqueous (content) and polymeric (migration) toy materials;
Part 19: Migration of bisphenol A from toy materials;
Part 20: Microbiological safety of toys containing accessible aqueous media.

It is up to the user of the standard to determine whether or not a toy is included in the scope of several of the above parts of the EN 71 series, and to apply each applicable standard accordingly. Normative references from one part of the EN 71 series to another, are therefore normally not provided in the individual parts.

NOTE 1 In addition to the above parts of EN 71, the following deliverables have been published:

— CEN/TR 15071, Safety of toys — National translations of warnings and instructions for use in the EN 71 series;

— CEN/TR 15371 (all parts), Safety of toys — Interpretations;

— CEN/TR 16918, Safety of toys — Children's mouthing behaviour in contact with toys;

— CEN/TR 17695, Safety of toys — Mechanical and physical properties — Guidance on categorisation of projectile toys within EN 71‑1;

— CEN/TS 17973, Safety of toys — Categorization of slime type materials;

— CEN/TR 18217, Safety of toys — Migration of certain elements from polymers;

— CEN/TR 18240, Safety of toys — Mechanical and physical properties — Guidance on the requirements for food-imitating toys in EN 71-1; and

— CEN ISO/TR 8124‑8, Safety of toys — Part 8: Age determination — First age grade for the appropriate play of toys.

NOTE 2 Words in italics (apart from document titles) are defined in Clause 3 (Terms and definitions).

The following significant changes have been implemented in this new edition:

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

1 Scope

This document specifies requirements and test methods for activity toys.

This document also specifies requirements for:

separately sold accessories for, and components of activity toys;
separately sold swing elements that are ready for use on or in combination with an activity toy;
construction packages for activity toys including components used to build activity toys in accordance with a scheduled building instruction.

The scope of this document excludes:

playground equipment intended for public use dealt with in the EN 1176 series;
bow-mounted rocking activity toys such as rocking horses and similar toys, which are covered by specific requirements in EN 71‑1;
toy pools with maximum depth of water over 400 mm measured, between the overflow level and the deepest point within the pool;
NOTE 1 For information regarding the classification of pools as toys see European Commission guidance document No. 8 on the application of the Directive 2009/48/EC on the safety of toys – Pools [1].
pools with maximum depth of water over 400 mm measured, between the overflow level and the deepest point within the pool, without play elements covered e.g. by the EN 16582 series or EN 16927.
NOTE 2 There is an enhanced risk of drowning in pools where the depth of water is in excess of 400 mm.
toy slides designed to be used in conjunction with domestic in-ground swimming pools;
trampolines for domestic use dealt with in EN 71‑14;
powered blowers used to continuously inflate inflatable activity toys.
NOTE 3 Powered blowers used to continuously inflate inflatable activity toys are considered to be a household appliance and covered by requirements given in EN 60335‑2‑80.

See also Clause A.1.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Requirements

4.1 General (see Clause A.2)

4.2 Barriers, handrails and ladders and similar means of access to activity toys

4.3 Entrapment (see Clause A.7)

4.4 Stability of activity toys other than slides, swings and activity toys with crossbeams, and seesaws

4.5 Slides (see Clause A.8)

4.6 Swings (see Clause A.10)

4.7 Seesaws

4.8 Carousels and rocking activity toys (see Clause A.12)

4.9 Paddling pools

4.10 Inflatable activity toys (see Clause A.17)

5 Warnings, markings, and instructions

5.1 General warnings and markings (see Clause A.15)

5.2 Paddling pools

5.3 Inflatable activity toys

5.4 Assembly and installation instructions

5.5 Maintenance

6 Test methods

6.1 General

6.2 Stability

6.3 Static strength

6.4 Dynamic strength of barriers and handrails (see 4.2.1)

6.5 Test for head and neck entrapment (see 4.3.1)

6.6 Toggle test (see 4.3.2)

6.7 Measurement of slide inclination and dimensions (see 4.5.4)

6.8 Diameter of ropes and other means of suspension (see 4.1.6 and Clause A.16)

6.9 Determination of impact from swing elements (see 4.6.8.2)

6.10 Static load test for paddling pools with non-inflatable walls (see 4.9.1)

6.11 Measurement of the height of falling protection of swings with double seats and examination of gaps between the swing seat and the falling protection

6.12 Strength of inflatable activity toy anchors

6.13 Deflation of inflatable activity toys

Bibliography

BS EN 71-8:2026

Safety of toys - Activity toys for domestic use

Current

Published:

31 Jan 2026