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A car seat for your baby is one of the most important purchases you can make.
But ‘killer’ versions are still being sold online, it has emerged, with more than a dozen flimsy fabric seats marketed as safe for children cropping up on popular websites.
These seats, which cost as little as £12.50, contain ‘fundamental flaws’ that put children’s lives at risk.
For those looking to make this essential purchase, it can be hard to know where to start.
Here, we have rounded up some of the best-rated and safe options available online.
All of these have undergone rigorous testing by researchers at Which?, who first sounded the alarm about illegal and unregulated versions appearing on websites such as eBay, Shein and Little Dreams.
So, whether you have a newborn or an older child, you can rest assured these are some of the safest options available.
The baby and young kids’ car seats that pass legal regulations
A team of experts from the consumer champion put hundreds of car seats to the test. This involved crash testing all seats at speeds that are tougher than the minimum legal requirement.
Their analysis also involved how comfortable a seat is, how easy it is to install and clean and the quality of instructions.
The highest-scoring seat across the whole range is the Silver Cross Dream + Dream i-Size Base.
This is a rear-facing car seat that’s approved for use from birth to approximately 15 months old.
‘This is a really great, high-scoring infant carrier with excellent front and side impact crash results,’ their review reads.
‘It launched a while ago, but is still a good option for those looking for an i-Size baby car seat that can also be used on a travel system pushchair.’
This seat retails for £159.95 on the UK Baby Centre website, with the base selling for £129.99.
The description reads: ‘Approved to the latest R129/03 safety standard, Dream i-Size offers unrivalled safety from their first journey home with three layers of side impact protection, adjustable newborn insert, a 5-point safety harness and easy-lock ISOFIX base.’
The Joie i-Spin Safe car seat also scored highly in tests, and ‘performed excellently’ in crash demonstrations.
The £250 spinning seat is suitable for children from birth up to around the age of four, and boasts a 90-degree swivel rotation to help parents.
The Which? review says: ‘As an extended rearward-facing seat, this makes it eligible for (and for which it passed) the Swedish Plus Test. This voluntary approval test uses faster speeds and shorter stopping times in crash tests to really put car seats through their paces, as well as taking measurements on the neck loads of the crash test dummies.
‘Other features on the i-Spin Safe include automatic side impact that is engaged when you tighten the harness, which can be done with one pull motion, six recline positions and built-in side ventilation on the seat.’
Nuna’s Pipa Urbn baby car seat, which retails for £300 at John Lewis, is approved for babies from birth to around 12 months old.
It performed well in the Which? crash tests, and the researchers said it is straightforward to install and comfortable for your baby.
‘The only downside,’ they write, ‘is that it only lasts until your baby is 12 months, rather than 15 months, which is the usual age limit for most i-size baby car seats’.
For older children, Which? recommend the Britax Römer Kidfix i-Size, which should see your child through from around four to 12 years old.
‘With good results on every aspect of our testing, we’re happy to recommend this car seat as a Best Buy,’ they said.
They said it is simpler to install than many others tested, and could be a good option for first-time parents.
The unsafe car seats recently highlighted by the consumer champion include safety defects such as a thin base and not having one central point of release for the harness.
These are ‘fundamental flaws’, the experts say, since a car seat must raise a child’s height to position the seat belt correctly across their lap.
Multiple buckles on the harness can make it difficult to rescue a child in the event of a crash.
Another disturbing feature of these products is their clear lack of side impact protection, which is needed to protect a child’s head from hitting the inside of the car.
This omission is a fundamental safety failing that leaves children vulnerable to head trauma or death in the event of a side impact.
This listing on Little Dreams contains ‘fundamental flaws’ that put child safety at risk. It has now been removed from their website
Experts came across this product on Shein which looks brightly coloured and appealing for children, but will provide them little to no protection in the even of a crash. It has now been removed from the site
Which? also pointed out that the seats they found lack the distinctive orange labels that indicate which safety regulation the seats comply with.
Child car seats must have an R44 or R129 regulation label to be sold legally in the UK.
Another concern is that while some product listings describe these items as car seats, the full descriptions warn against using them in cars.
Sue Davies, Which? Head of Consumer Protection Policy, said: ‘It is appalling that these deadly car seats are reappearing on online marketplaces more than a decade after Which? first exposed them, but it is not surprising.
‘This is just one in a long list of dangerous products that Which? has identified and have been taken down only for them to later reappear for sale.
‘Children’s lives will be at risk, with less affluent households most likely to be affected, until online marketplaces are forced to take responsibility for the listing of these cheap but deadly car seats.’
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