[Anchor]
A significant number of products from unstaffed claw machine arcades, which are popular among children, have been found to contain hazardous substances exceeding safety standards. Many stores were also found to use suspected counterfeit toys and lacked adequate safety management.
Reporter Baek Un has the details.
[Reporter]
These are dolls and keychains commonly seen in claw machine arcades.
The Korea Consumer Agency inspected 20 products obtained from unstaffed claw machine arcades and found that 12 of them, or 60%, contained toxic chemicals exceeding children's product safety standards.
Phthalate plasticizers, environmental hormones used to make plastics flexible that can hinder children's growth, were detected in nine of the products.
Some products contained levels exceeding the safety limit by more than 347 times.
Lead and cadmium, classified as carcinogenic substances by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, were also detected in excess across eight and two products, respectively.
Even products featuring famous characters could not be trusted.
When 10 of the investigated products bearing manufacturer names were compared with authentic items, their shapes and colors differed, and they could not be authenticated with serial numbers or QR codes for genuine verification.
[Kook Eun-suk / Head of the Living Safety Team, Korea Consumer Agency: Out of the 10 products suspected to be counterfeit as they could not be authenticated, 80% were found to contain harmful chemical substances exceeding the standard limits.]
Management at unstaffed stores also needed improvement.
Among the 16 locations surveyed, 4 lacked fire extinguishers, 3 failed to post safety usage guidelines, and 11 did not display their business registration certificates.
Some locations even left broken floor tiles or knives and gardening shears unattended.
The Consumer Agency plans to share the survey results with local governments and request the government to strengthen safety management and supervision over prizes and facilities at claw machine arcades.
(Video Editing: Kim Yun-seong, VJ: Jeong Han-uk, Footage provided by: Korea Consumer Agency)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.