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Speaker 1: You're listening to Amma mea podcast.

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Speaker 2: Hey, I'm Taylor Strano. This is MMA MIA's twice daily

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Speaker 2: news podcast, The Quickie. As we head into the busiest

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Speaker 2: shopping season of the year, many of us are turning

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Speaker 2: to online marketplaces for bargain toys, but not everything in

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Speaker 2: that cart is as safe as it seems. New research

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Speaker 2: reveals a hidden danger inside some of the most affordable

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Speaker 2: kids toys. Before we get there, here's Claire Murphy with

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Speaker 2: the latest from the Quicki news room for Wednesday, November nineteen.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Taylor. Parents of kids under sixteen are frustrated that

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Speaker 1: the details around what exactly will happen when the social

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Speaker 1: media band kicks in on December ten remain unclear. The

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Speaker 1: government initiative will require platforms to deactivate existing accounts held

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Speaker 1: by any underage users, with any news signups required to

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Speaker 1: undergo an age verification check. The age verification process may

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Speaker 1: include facial analysis, behavioral data, and other ID checks, with

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Speaker 1: a review process in place for any accounts that are

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Speaker 1: incorrectly flagged as being under sixteen. Some platforms say they

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Speaker 1: will archive these accounts until the user turn sixteen, when

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Speaker 1: they can be reactivated. However, the advice is for any

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Speaker 1: users to download any data they want to keep before

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Speaker 1: December ten, just in case it's lost in that time.

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Speaker 1: The platforms impacted by the ban include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok,

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Speaker 1: YouTube and Reddit. While gaming platform Roadblocks has been excluded.

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Speaker 1: They have announced that they will also introduce an age

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Speaker 1: verification system in three countries, including Australia. The new system

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Speaker 1: requires anyone who wants to privately message another player to

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Speaker 1: verify their age. Roadblocks has recently announced they plan to

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Speaker 1: user company called Persona to estimate a player's age by

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Speaker 1: making them take a selfie video, which is deleted after

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Speaker 1: the age check is completed. Roadblocks currently doesn't allow anyone

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Speaker 1: under thirteen to chat privately with other players without parental permission,

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Speaker 1: and their chats aren't encrypted so they can be moderated

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Speaker 1: and monitored. The Victorian Liberals have left themselves just over

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Speaker 1: twelve months to regroup after ditching Brad Batten as leader

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Speaker 1: yesterday in favor of first term MP Jess Wilson. Miss

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Speaker 1: Wilson has promised a campaign on the cost of living,

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Speaker 1: budget debt, crime, health and home ownership to end Labour's

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Speaker 1: three term government next November The thirty five year old

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Speaker 1: became the first woman to leave the Victorian Liberals in

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Speaker 1: the party's history, and is viewed as a bigger challenger

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Speaker 1: to Labour led by Premier Justin to Allen. Israeli Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was applauding the United Nations approval of

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Speaker 1: the Trump Administration's blueprint to secure and govern Gaza, while

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Speaker 1: Hamas has rejected the plan, calling it a foreign instrument

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Speaker 1: of control. The resolution that passed the UN Security Council

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Speaker 1: on Monday authorizes an international Stabilization force to provide security

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Speaker 1: in war devastated Gaza, approves a transitional authority called the

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Speaker 1: Board of Peace, to be overseen by President Donald Trump,

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Speaker 1: and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state,

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Speaker 1: although it doesn't clearly outline a time frame for that process.

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Speaker 1: Netnyahu's office wrote on social media yesterday, we believe that

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Speaker 1: President Trump's plan will lead to peace and prosperity because

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Speaker 1: it insists upon full demilitarization, disarmament, and the deradicalization of Gaza.

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Speaker 1: Hammas said on Monday, though, that the force's mandate including disarmament,

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Speaker 1: strips it of its neutrality and turns it into a

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Speaker 1: party of the conflict in favor of the occupation. Saying

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Speaker 1: the resolution did not meet the level of the Palestinian

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Speaker 1: people's political and humanitarian demands and rights, Hammas demanded that

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Speaker 1: any international force be under UN supervision, deploy only at

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Speaker 1: Gaza's borders, to monitor the ceasefire, and operate exclusively with

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Speaker 1: Palestinian institutions. The Palestinian authority welcomed the resolution and said

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Speaker 1: it was ready to immediately implement it. On the ground,

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Speaker 1: it said it would cooperate with the US, the UN,

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Speaker 1: and other Arab and European states. The La County Sheriff's

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Speaker 1: Department is investigating a new sexual battery allegation against hip

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Speaker 1: hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs. Combs, who are serving a

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Speaker 1: four year prison sentence on prostitute related convictions, has been

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Speaker 1: accused by a male music producer and publicist who says

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Speaker 1: he was asked to come to a photoshoot in twenty twenty,

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Speaker 1: where he claims Combs exposed himself while performing a sex

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Speaker 1: act and told the accuser to assist. Combs then allegedly

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Speaker 1: tossed a dirty shirt at the man. The accuser, whose

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Speaker 1: name is redacted in the police report said he didn't

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Speaker 1: tell anyone for several years because he felt embarrassed. The

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Speaker 1: La Sheriff's Department said it received the official copy of

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Speaker 1: the report from the Florida Department on Friday and will

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Speaker 1: be investigating the allegations. The report also details an incident

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Speaker 1: from March twenty twenty one in which the accuser claims

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Speaker 1: two men covered his head before Combs came into the

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Speaker 1: room and called him a snitch.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Claire. Next the loophole allowing unsafe toys to be

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Speaker 2: sold online. Look, I don't mean to alarm you, but

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Speaker 2: Christmas is just thirty seven days away. If you've got

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Speaker 2: young folks in your life, and, like many of us,

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Speaker 2: are trying to do prezzy shopping without having to take

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Speaker 2: out alone, you might be looking online for affordable options

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Speaker 2: to pop under the tree this year. But, as with

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Speaker 2: everything online, purchasing toys from web based marketplaces doesn't come

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Speaker 2: without risks. Consumer advocacy group Choice has just released the

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Speaker 2: findings from their latest investigation into button battery based products

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Speaker 2: from various online retailers. The TLDR well many stores are

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Speaker 2: offering up products with less than safe features when it

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Speaker 2: comes to securing the batteries. Now, this raises concerns. As

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Speaker 2: of twenty twenty three children in Australia have died from

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Speaker 2: ingesting those little round batteries, while the Australian Competition and

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Speaker 2: Consumer Commission estimates around one child every month is seriously injured.

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Speaker 2: World First laws came into effect in Australia back in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, introducing safety standards around these types of products.

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Speaker 1: But the kicker is.

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Speaker 2: That don't actually apply to online marketplaces selling other businesses products.

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Speaker 2: So what are you supposed to do when trawling for

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Speaker 2: those Christmas presents this year? To explain more, were joined

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Speaker 2: by Choices Director of Campaigns Rosie Thomas. Rosie, tell me

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Speaker 2: about this Choice investigation. What were you looking for and

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Speaker 2: where did you go looking?

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Speaker 3: So we purchased twenty four toys containing button batteries from

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Speaker 3: popular online marketplaces and we found that seventeen of them

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Speaker 3: failed to comply with the mandatory button battery safety standard. Now,

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Speaker 3: these toys were on shan Ali Express, eBay and Amazon

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Speaker 3: and we found that they had serious safety failures. So

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Speaker 3: that's things like battery compartments that could be opened without

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Speaker 3: a tool, missing warning labels. And the screws for some

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Speaker 3: of those battery compartments weren't captive, so that means that

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Speaker 3: you could easily lose the screw when you're replacing the

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Speaker 3: battery and the toy.

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Speaker 2: This is concerning obviously we're fast approaching Christmas and people

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Speaker 2: start doing their Christmas shopping. There'll be toys under the

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Speaker 2: tree to open on Christmas Day. So what are some

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Speaker 2: of the risks here if people are purchasing these products

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Speaker 2: and maybe a screw comes loose or you're able to

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Speaker 2: flick it open and get one of those batteries out.

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Speaker 2: What are we actually talking about here?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a really good question and an easy thing

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Speaker 3: to lose sight of. And so button batteries can be

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Speaker 3: catastrophically harmful to small children when they are ingested, and

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Speaker 3: they are things that small children will often put in

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Speaker 3: their mouth because they're shiny and round. Now, tragically in

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Speaker 3: Australia three children have died from swallowing a button battery

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Speaker 3: and it's following those deaths and after years of advocacy

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Speaker 3: of many people, including Choice, that we finally introduced button

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Speaker 3: battery safety standards in Australia. Now there were world leading

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Speaker 3: standards designed to protect children from the dangers of button batteries.

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Speaker 3: But what we're finding is several years after those standards

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Speaker 3: were introduced, we can still find toys that don't comply

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Speaker 3: with the standard on the online marketplaces very easily.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So why is that Because the safety standards don't

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Speaker 2: necessarily apply to those online retailers, right, Yeah, so.

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Speaker 3: There's a bit of a gap in the law. What

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Speaker 3: that means is that it's the responsibility of the third

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Speaker 3: party sellers using these marketplaces to ensure the products comply.

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Speaker 3: On something like shan and Ali Express, even eBay or Amazon,

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Speaker 3: they're often small offshore operators that don't really care too

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Speaker 3: much about their reputations or compliance, and so that makes

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Speaker 3: it really hard for the AH Triple C or other

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Speaker 3: authorities to take any real enforcement action or do a

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Speaker 3: lot about them now a choice, we think that the

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Speaker 3: online marketplaces, they are all making money selling these products,

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Speaker 3: and so they should take responsibility for the safety of

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Speaker 3: what's on there, and so we're advocating for stronger safety

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Speaker 3: laws that would require all businesses, including the online marketplaces,

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Speaker 3: to do more to make sure the products are safe.

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Speaker 2: Nobody likes to be told that they're doing the wrong thing,

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Speaker 2: or they're maybe not being compliant. Once you ran these

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Speaker 2: tests identified the ones that were maybe at risk, what happened?

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Speaker 2: Did you reach out to the companies?

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Speaker 1: We did.

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Speaker 3: We always do when we find unsafe products and hope

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Speaker 3: that companies will do the right thing. In this instance,

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Speaker 3: we got a range of responses, which was really interesting

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Speaker 3: in and of itself. Shan didn't respond to Choice at all,

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Speaker 3: so we don't know whether they've received it. They haven't

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Speaker 3: acknowledged it in any way. Ali Express responded, but they

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Speaker 3: rejected our findings as unsubstantiated, and then eBay and Amazon

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Speaker 3: responded reasonably promptly and confirmed that they've removed these products

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Speaker 3: from sale.

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Speaker 2: So that's the online space, But this kind of issues

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Speaker 2: still does exist in other types of retailers as well.

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Speaker 3: Yes, that's absolutely right. Just last week we saw the

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Speaker 3: Wiggles m a yellow headband was recalled for button battery issues.

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Speaker 3: And over the years, I know the h PLC has

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Speaker 3: taken I think City Beach, one of the surf retailers

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Speaker 3: through the courts as well for failures around button battery safety.

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Speaker 3: So you're absolutely right, it's not just an online marketplace issue,

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Speaker 3: but the difference is when it comes to the bricks

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Speaker 3: and mortar stores and the local stores, the ah PLEC

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Speaker 3: does have the tools and the powers to do something

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Speaker 3: about it, and that's why we hear about things like

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Speaker 3: recalls for those other products. Whereas the online marketplaces, there

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Speaker 3: does seem to be a gap in the law, and

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Speaker 3: that's why we're advocating for stronger laws to close that gap.

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Speaker 2: So where does this leave shoppers or I guess parents

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Speaker 2: who are looking to buy those Christmas presents. Obviously, the

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Speaker 2: allure of places like things online marketplace and retailers is

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Speaker 2: that they are more affordable and you can get more

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Speaker 2: bang for your buck. It can go further, you can

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Speaker 2: put more under the tree, but you also maybe run

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Speaker 2: the risk of some of these other issues that you've identified.

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Speaker 2: So what advice do you have for them?

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Speaker 3: We very much understand that it's an expensive time of

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Speaker 3: year and parents might be tempted by the cheaper options

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Speaker 3: on these online marketplaces. Our advice is that when it

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Speaker 3: comes to toys, baby products, or really anything where safety

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Speaker 3: really matters, we recommend avoiding the cheap online sellers because

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Speaker 3: time and time again that is where we find the

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Speaker 3: products that fail to meet the safety standards.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for taking some time to feed your mind with

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Speaker 2: us today. The Quikie is produced by me Tail Strano,

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Speaker 2: Lario Brophy, and Claire Murphy, with audio production by Lou Hill.

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Speaker 1: Muma. Mea acknowledges the traditional owners of land and wars

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Speaker 1: ortters that this podcast is recorded on