What is ICTI CARE?

ICTI is an industry association; ICTI CARE is the historical name of a social responsibility programme. It became the ICTI Ethical Toy Program in January 2018 and the Ethical Supply Chain Program (ESCP) in 2024. Current projects should confirm ESCP and customer requirements.

ESCP — programme history

Introduction to ICTI

The International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) is an international association of toy-industry associations. The original article described members from 20 countries, each representing toy businesses in its territory. This count is historical, not a current membership total.

ICTI and its members promote toy safety standards, the reduction of trade barriers and social responsibility, including environmental matters, fair and lawful employment and safe workplaces.

Established: September 1975.

The original article described an Asian programme office in Hong Kong and headquarters in New York. These historical details should not be used as current contact information.

The original article cited 1,500 certified factories in more than 30 countries. These are historical figures, not current programme statistics.

Mission

Provide a forum for information exchange and discussion of important toy-industry trends; promote safety standards, reduce trade barriers and encourage environmental responsibility, fair employment and workplace safety.

Practice areas described in the original article

• Compliance with workplace laws and regulations
• Working hours
• Wages and compensation
• Underage labour
• Forced labour
• Prison labour
• Discipline
• Discrimination
• Worker representation
• Facilities
• Fire safety
• Environment and occupational health and safety
• Welfare facilities, canteens, dormitories and medical services

The historical ICTI CARE programme

CARE represents Caring, Awareness, Responsible and Ethical. ICTI CARE was an ethical manufacturing programme intended to support safe and humane conditions for workers in toy factories worldwide.

Established through ICTI’s initiative, ICTI CARE sought to provide a single, fair, comprehensive and consistent monitoring programme against the ICTI Code of Business Practices, together with education and training. These descriptions refer to the programme under its historical name.

The original programme initially focused on China, Hong Kong and Macau and was intended to expand to other toy-producing countries. The article’s estimate that these locations produced about 80% of the world’s toys is historical, not a current production statistic.