I'd better start by declaring an interest. I am one of the engineers who started the Fatally Flawed campaign, I have no connection with any equipment manufacturer but I am very interested in safety, especially child safety.
For a whole range of historical, and economic, reasons, we're stuck with an electrical system which has to be treated with respect if it is to be safe. Otherwise it can kill in a fraction of a second, and touching live contacts with wet hands makes this highly likely. As you will know, very small children usually have wet hands.
Sorry if you already know this, but some people may be unclear. You really only need two 'live' contacts at a socket to make appliances work, the third (top) contact is there for very important safety reasons and is connected to "earth" , quite literally if you go far enough back in the supply system. This is why it is important not to touch the lower two contacts, the supply can drive enough current through your body to kill.
Away back in 1944, the British Government set up committees to study how housing could be made better after the war and one of the committee studying electrical systems recommended that ALL electrical sockets should have the live contacts closed off by a safety shutter mechanism until a proper plug was nearly fully inserted. (This was already done on the better sockets of the day). Another of their recommendations lead to the design of the now standard 13A "square pin" plug introduced in 1947. Ever since then all 13A sokets have had to have shutters by law and these must be tested to rigourous standards.
In some countries, shuttered sockets are not a legal requirement so some other blanking off arrangement might well be useful. Probably someone saw these and not understanding that British sockets already had this safety feature built in, they thought it would be a good idea to sell them here.
As you see, there are not necessary with British sockets, (also used in Ireland and other countries). Unfortunately, socket covers are subject to no regulations at all. Many are poorly made, none are tested since there are no standards, and most can be abused, for example by putting them in upside down - they mostly bent or break to allow this. So who is going to put them in upside down? Think how young children like to imitate and experiment and the answer is obvious. Most of you probably would never dream of leaving your child unattended for long enough for this to happen and that is by far the best precaution, but none of us is perfect.... and then the carefully designed and tested, built-in protection is gone.
Thanks to DieselGenny for his well-founded comments. Shutters are compulsory, switched sockets are not. Switched sockets are nearly always better but sometimes there can be a case for using the unswitched type with fixed appliances and an external switch, and they can be a few pence cheaper. Some people think this is a worthwhile saving - I would rate safety much higher than this and I like to switch things off when they're not in use.
Please take the time to go to our website where there is a lot more information. I hope you will find it informative. Please send us your comments.
PMM.
...not sticking anything in though, obviously!)
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??? He didn't charge much as he's my Dad's mate
