Children’s rights on the agenda
We have always strived to act in the best interests of children, focusing on how to promote every child’s right to play and be heard. The next step is to integrate children’s rights into the entire IKEA business.
Asking children to teach us a thing or two
Play is an important part of every child’s development, and we’re constantly exploring and developing new solutions to stimulate play all around the home. We involve children in different ways, for example through something we call Kids Lab, where we invite children to help us develop new products. We also facilitate an online panel called Kids Panel, where we get valuable input from “advisors” aged 8-14 from around the world. The children and their parents respond to questions sent to them every two weeks by an experienced research company. This provides the product development department for children’s products with a unique perspective. Each year, we also invite children from around the world to draw the soft toy of their dreams, turning the most unique creations into a limited edition collection.
Durable toys designed with love
When developing products with and for kids, safety is always a top priority, and by bringing children and their perspective into the product development process, we can also make sure that the products are actually what children want and need. We have quality standards for all our products. But in this case, we take it one step further. All co-workers and suppliers involved in developing children’s products must go through special training called children’s school, which makes sure safety, quality and the needs of the child are in focus throughout the whole development process.
A bigger commitment to children’s rights
As part of our People and Planet Positive strategy, we have decided that by 2030 we will have integrated a child’s rights perspective into all of our business activities. We want to ensure that all our business decisions promote the best interests of children.
