This Technical Report provides guidelines for the determination of the lowest age at which children start playing with toys in specific toy sub-categories and is primarily directed to manufacturers and agencies that evaluate the compliance of toys with safety standards.

This Technical Report can also be used as a reference to determine the appropriateness of toys by earliest age, for use by distributors, institutions, and organizations involved with child play, as well as by paediatric institutions, teachers, other professionals that use toys in their routine activities, and consumers.

The age at which children develop different abilities is unique for each individual child. These guidelines illustrate the age ranges during which a typical child has developed certain abilities.

Although age grading has safety implications, these guidelines are not intended to address specific safety requirements. Specific safety requirements for toys can be found in the ISO 8124 series of toy safety standards (and in other regional toy safety standards and regulations). As an example, such standards will restrict the presence of small parts and small balls in toys intended for certain age groups, due to the choking hazard.

These age determination guidelines are based on the advice of experts and traditional play patterns of children; they might differ from national or regional regulations or directives that classify a toy, or category of toy, as being intended for a different age.

Annex B gives details on how information on electronic toys and electronics in toys was considered in the development of these age determination guidelines.