Advancing Youth Safety in ASEAN through Edutainment

A group from Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a global company in product safety certification and compliance solutions, visited the ASEAN Secretariat today to discuss product safety awareness programmes that it is carrying out in partnership with the Walt Disney Company.

Meeting the group, the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, highlighted the importance of ensuring proper standards and conformance that is in line with international standards and practices to ensure that products are safe. Dr Surin and the group from Underwriters Laboratories and the Walt Disney Company exchanged ideas on raising awareness on safety in particular targeting children and youth in the region and possible future cooperation in advancing youth safety education in the region.

โ€œSafe products are as important as mindful behaviours,โ€ said Dr Surin. Consumer awareness, he said, remains a challenge and public outreach programmes can help consumers to make the right choice. โ€œBoth industries and individuals must have the awareness. Industries are accountable for driving safety and apply checks and balances to ensure conformity to international safety standards, while individuals have the responsibility to make informed choices, including parents educating and protecting their children on safe products and behaviours,โ€ Dr Surin stressed.

Dr Surin added that economies which compete fairly should compete with products that conform to international safety standards. In ASEAN, its Free Trade Area agreements have built-in clauses on safeguards of products and services. ASEAN aspires for its products to be recognised as a safe brand worldwide, and likewise, ASEAN wants to receive products that are just as safe as the ones shipped to the developed world, he said.

Underwriters Laboratories and various units of the Walt Disney Company have partnered on a groundbreaking in-school safety program called Safety Smart! to empower students to be responsible and make โ€œsafety smartโ€ decisions at home, on environment, in the water and on fire. Released in 2008, the first two in a series of UL-sponsored DVDs get children โ€œedutainedโ€ about safety.

Email from: Ms. Wahyuningrum (Yuyun)

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When: 7/2/2014

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