There are many hidden dangers in the children’s play area of shopping malls： it is difficult to refund in advance if the play area is not disinfected.
Located in a children’s playground in a shopping mall in the North Fifth Ring Road, there are still many parents playing with their children at night. Photo/Reporter Zhao Tingting
Nowadays, Beijing is at the turn of winter and spring, and the climatic characteristics of windy sand and smog make it a headache for many parents to go out. Children’s play areas in shopping malls, which are not affected by the weather and parents can have a place to rest, have therefore become a popular choice for "Liuwa". However, is the children’s play area in the shopping mall really safe and reliable? Beijing Youth Daily reporter recently visited a number of children’s play areas and found that the beautiful children’s play areas actually hide many problems, such as health and safety hazards, and the fees are not low, but there are also problems such as irregular fees.
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The site is littered with scraps of paper and dust
"Disinfection" is only wiped with a mop
When reporters from Beiqing Daily visited children’s playgrounds in several shopping malls in recent days, they found that many children’s playgrounds do have health hazards. Most children’s play areas require children and adults to wear socks, but in the playground, Beiqing Daily reporter saw many children running around barefoot. Even if parents and children wear socks as required, sometimes there will be unpleasant odor, which is more obvious when the weather is hot.
Ms. Ran, who lives near Xihongmen in the South Fifth Ring Road, told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that she once took her children to play in the children’s play area of a nearby shopping mall. The white socks that the children had just worn when they went out were covered with dust after only playing in them for two hours. "Although it didn’t completely turn black, it turned into a very obvious taupe." Ms. Ran said that she also found large pieces of paper scraps, fruit shells and other garbage in the corner of the amusement area. Since this experience, she always takes disinfectant with her every time she takes her children to play in the amusement area.
In addition, although most children’s play areas require children under the age of two to wear diapers, the reporter of Beiqing Daily found that no one asked or checked whether the children wore diapers when they entered. Not only that, the reporter of Beiqing Daily also saw with his own eyes that some children wet the ocean ball while playing in it, but the accompanying parents just took the child away and cleaned it, and did not inform the waiter to clean up the urine on the ocean ball.
However, when the reporter of Beiqing Daily asked the person in charge of a children’s play area near Tiantongyuan whether the play facilities and equipment would be cleaned every day, the answer was yes. "We clean and disinfect every day and have records."
However, in fact, the reporter of Beiqing Daily observed many times that the so-called equipment was clean, but only a few employees took a big mop and simply wiped the appearance of the children’s climbing area. Not only was there no further disinfection, but even the equipment did not enter.
Subsequently, the reporter of Beiqing Daily consulted a manufacturer specializing in the production of children’s amusement facilities as a merchant. Its customer service staff said that indoor amusement equipment needs to be cleaned regularly. Regarding the question of whether regular cleaning means hiring someone, and how to clean up the ocean balls with so many numbers, its customer service staff said that manufacturers have special cleaning machines for sale, but most businesses have not bought them, suggesting that "you can simply clean them yourself there".
The facilities are marked for children only.
Parents climb without being discouraged.
In the children’s play area, all the equipment is clearly marked: no adult riding. However, in children’s playgrounds, there are not a few adults chasing children to climb in the climbing area, trample in the bubble area and trampling on the trampoline.
"Children’s play facilities are only for children’s play. Please don’t stay on children’s equipment for a long time." In the children’s play area of a large shopping mall in the East Third Ring Road, the radio is playing a similar message, but many parents still turn a deaf ear and slide down the children’s slide with their children in their arms. In the crawling area made of bandages, many parents also climbed with their children.
Facing the scene of parents and children crawling on the amusement facilities together, although the staff of the playground stood by, they chose to turn a blind eye and did not go forward to dissuade them. When the reporter of Beiqing Daily consulted the staff, the other party said: "We can only remind them as much as possible. This mainly depends on the parents’ own consciousness."
Can children’s equipment be used by adults? A manufacturer of amusement facilities told the reporter of Beiqing Daily that the load-bearing capacity of children’s amusement facilities is limited. Adults are overweight and often climb on them, which will accelerate the aging and damage of facilities, leading to a significant increase in the probability of accidents. For example, for some children’s crossing facilities with bandages, the gap between bandages will become larger when adults use them many times, and the risk of children getting stuck or falling will also increase. According to the production requirements, adults can’t use children’s amusement facilities.
"The child is too young to follow, and it is not safe if it gets stuck." Ms. Sun, a citizen who crawled along the narrow aisle with her little grandson, said that she actually didn’t want to crawl around with her children, but there was no special person in the playground to help guide and care for the children. For the safety of the children, she could only climb with them.
The per capita charge is nearly 100 yuan.
Pre-paid card withdrawal encountered difficulties.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily found that the consumption of children’s play areas is not low. There are two main ways to consume children’s play areas in shopping malls: one-time consumption and membership card recharge consumption. The charging standard for a single consumption is generally around 80 yuan, and the expensive one can reach 200 or even 300 yuan. After recharging the membership card of the children’s amusement park, most consumers can enjoy certain discounts. On average, the cheap ones cost nearly 100 yuan each time.
In the list of the top 12 amusement parks in Chaoyang District Children’s Paradise popularity list listed on a review website, the most expensive amusement park is 386 yuan per capita, and the cheapest one is 122 yuan per capita. For example, there is a children’s play area suitable for children aged 2 -3 on the third floor of INDIGO. The weekend ticket price is 120 yuan, limited to two hours, and the package ticket to 550 yuan is six times.
At the same time, the merchants are very casual about the formulation of consumption rules. Because children love riding the merry-go-round, Ms. Liu applied for recharging 500 yuan’s membership card in a children’s amusement park near lishuiqiao, and she can enjoy about 20% discount every time she rides.
However, because the recharge is carried out by purchasing game coins, Ms. Liu was told that once the game coins are purchased, they will not be refunded. A few days ago, when Ms. Liu took her children on a Trojan horse, she found that the ticket office of the playground posted a notice that the recharge of the month must be completed before the end of the month. "If you change it, you will change it, and no one will inform you at all. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I might have expired and didn’t know it!" Ms. Liu said.
In addition, the difficulty of card withdrawal is also a major drawback of shopping malls and playgrounds being vomited by many mothers. Ms. Qian, a citizen, told the reporter of Beiqing Daily about her experience. At the end of last year, the children’s play area in a shopping mall in the fourth ring road in the northwest had a situation where the recharge could not be refunded after the merchant changed hands. "At that time, we went to the shopping mall theory, but the shopping mall said that the announcement had been posted before, and the responsibility of reminding was fulfilled. The stored value card refund had to go to the merchant." She said that because there was not much money left in the card, the matter was finally dropped.
The reporter of Beiqing Daily found out that it is not uncommon to have a similar problem of card withdrawal. According to media reports, at the end of 2018, a consumer set up a membership card worth 1,500 yuan in Youyoutang, Harmony Square in Ginza, but after only two or three times, the store suddenly closed, and it was impossible to contact the merchant for a refund. Previously, Youyoutang in Beijing Xihongmen Gathering Center and Youyoutang in Cuiwei Kaide mall closed their stores in this way. Text/reporter Zhao Tingting
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There is a regulatory gap in indoor children’s playgrounds.
Children’s amusement facilities are not only used in large quantities, but also easily bitten by children when playing, so the quality of facilities and equipment and regular cleaning and disinfection become very important. However, the reporter of Beiqing Daily learned that the health problems of children’s parks in shopping malls seem to face "three no matter", but only the merchants are conscious.
China’s "Regulations on Hygiene Management of Public Places" clearly stipulates that 28 kinds of places in 7 categories will be regulated, but indoor children’s playgrounds are not included, which makes its hygiene management lack a clear basis. In terms of actual supervision, shopping malls generally only ask for the fire safety of playgrounds, but pay little attention to health and other issues, and few health departments do on-the-spot supervision and inspection of indoor children’s playgrounds.
In addition to health problems, the safety supervision of children’s playgrounds in shopping malls is also facing the same dilemma. It is understood that most amusement places in shopping malls have both small amusement facilities and electronic amusement equipment, which are often neither purely cultural and entertainment places nor sports and fitness places in nature, and the subject of supervision is not clear, so there is a lack of clear mandatory safety standards.
According to China’s "Regulations on Safety Supervision of Special Equipment", the quality supervision department is only responsible for supervising the safety of large amusement facilities, such as roller coasters. However, small children’s amusement equipment such as ocean balls, slides and climbing are not within the scope of special equipment marked by the Special Equipment Safety Law.
According to industry insiders, the supervision of children’s playgrounds in shopping malls requires the joint efforts of many departments, including the supervision of equipment production and sales, as well as the inspection and supervision of operators. Only by coordinated management of various departments can the health and safety of children’s playgrounds be ensured.
Text/reporter Zhao Tingting