The Consumer Product Safety Commission is pressuring online resale sites, like Craigslist and eBay, to stop the sales of illegal used cribs. The CPSC put new safety guidelines in place for cribs on June 28. The guidelines are meant to make cribs safer for children by making the design and materials stronger. This is meant to make the cribs last longer, considering how much they are used in real life. The cribs have been found to break down through repeated use and to cause injuries and deaths to infants using the cribs.
Businesses are no longer allowed to sell cribs that were made before this date. Some retailers are selling retrofit kits to make these outdated cribs up-to-standard. Despite these new rules by the CPSC, used cribs that are considered dangerous products are still being sold on the Internet by individual sellers. Even drop-side cribs, which have been banned, are still being sold online. These products are blamed for the deaths of 32 infants.
According to a recent article in USA Today, eBay has agreed to take down auctions for the illegal used cribs within the next few weeks through talks with the CPSC. Craigslist, however, has not agreed to take down ads because they say their site is really run by users. Users have the power to flag inappropriate or illegal ads and cause them to be taken down. Craigslist did update its information on rules for posting to reflect the new crib rules, but so far says it will not be taking down posts.
Source: USA Today, “Illegal used cribs still on sale on Craigslist, eBay,” Jayne O’Donnell and Oliver St. John, Aug. 8, 2011