Today, KID launched a new online course geared towards entrepreneurs and businesses that create children’s products – the KID Design Safety Toolkit. The course, which is free of charge, provides children’s product developers with the information and tools they need to design, develop, and market products more safely, and is a much-needed resource in the children’s products market. The online course is a result of several years of work from a cross-functional team of experts in children’s products across all facets of development, from product design to research, safety, testing, legal, marketing and more.

While no one sets out to design a product that puts our most vulnerable consumers—infants and children—at risk, each year tens of thousands of kids are injured and hundreds die in incidents associated with infant and children’s products. Many entrepreneurs and organizations have great ideas or a clear vision of the need from their own experiences but aren’t skilled in product safety or child development. On top of that, they may not have all the resources needed to ensure product safety once their products are in the home and in real-world use.

The Toolkit is comprised of expert panel discussions, educational videos and podcasts, and more, and includes information regarding:

  • Understanding consumer behavior—and designing to ensure safety in real-world use
  • What can happen if you do not keep the end user in mind
  • Designing and manufacturing to encourage intuitive and safe use
  • The role of market research—and how to incorporate that at any budget level
  • Marketing with an eye toward safety
  • Age grading and developmental considerations

This is the first phase of the Toolkit. The second phase will provide a deeper dive into specific safety considerations for key infant and children’s product categories including sleep, at home, out and about, and play.

Learn more and register for the KID Design Safety Toolkit here. Major funding for the Toolkit was provided by Amazon. Additional funding was provided by BreathableBaby, Etsy, and QIMA. Read our full contributors list here with video panelists and advisory committee, including industry and product safety experts such as Dr. Erin Mannen, Don Mays, Susan DeRagon, and Rachel Weintraub.

Comment below and let us know what you think of the Toolkit.