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Father of five issued a warning about power socket covers that you need to see!

Parents have been urged to throw power socket covers in the bin or risk their children seriously harming themselves.

Electrician, Steve Palmer, from JPS Electrical Services in UK, warning about the “horrible, unsafe” socket covers has been viewed nearly two million times since it was put on Facebook a week ago.

He warns, “You wouldn’t provide your child with a screwdriver to play with around your home so STOP inserting a TOOL into your sockets that could potentially be the cause of serious harm or even the death of your child. “

The father-of-five has urged parents to discard the ‘safety’ devices after demonstrating how they could expose children to a 230V current.

In a video posted to Facebook, the electrician shows how easily his sons, Jayden, one at the time, and Preston, three, can remove and replace the covers.

He then goes on to explain how placing a prong into the top pin socket can potentially open up the live pin socket and a strong current.

Talking about standard socket with no cover he says: “These sockets go through vigorous testing…to make sure that they are safe.

“You don’t need (plug socket cover) to make it safe.

“In fact, what you are actually doing, is giving your child a tool that will allow them to open up the live conductors.”

He explains that his sons treated the plug socket cover “like a jigsaw”, putting the guard in at different angles and potentially upside down leaving the live pin socket exposed.

He then demonstrates that he is able to reach the plug’s live conductors when the guard is in at this angle.

He continues: “It could stay like that for days, weeks, possibly even a month, in which time your child has found something small and conductive, perhaps metal and they’ve come along and put it in (the socket).”

“These horrible, unsafe socket covers need to go in the bin.

“These things are a tool for your child to cause some serious harm to themself. Chances are it might not happen but why live in ifs, buts and maybes?”

Watch his message below

I used these when the boys were little, but they never played with them, so we would not have had any chances of this occurring. But if your child has a habit of pulling them out of the socket it is probably best to toss them all together.

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  • In old houses most power points are not put on the skirting boards or very low on the door frames or walls like they are now. I had a 15 month old child try to poke something into a power point which was very rarely if ever used. I used a white cover. I can’t get it out so I doubt the little kids will get it out. One of them we also taped the switch off very securely with electrical tape so it can’t be switched on. He’s old enough not to know not to touch it at all. In fact he told me that I’m not allowed to touch it. Notice how close to the floor that powerpoint is.

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  • Thanks for the warning for those who have them.

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  • With all things related to our children, we need to use discernment about the safety implications for our children.

    Just for reference, the bottom plug in Australia is the equivalent of the top in this video.

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  • Thanks for the heads up, good to know !

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  • Might need to be pointed out that if you live in Australia the powerpoints are different from the UK ones shown in the video.

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  • That’s quite scary. My hubby used to like putting them in at our old house but I was never too concerned by them and used to take them out and leave them out. I’m glad that neither of my kids has shown an interest in the power points.

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  • I use these but I need to use a knife to get them out. A toddler wouldn’t have a hope.

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  • Here in Aus our powerpoints are always “live” when switched on, so inserting something in the ground(our bottom 3rd pin) will not change that. If anything it is safer to use the safety plug covers to prevent children from inserting anything into our potentially live power points.

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  • A very instructive video. Definitely worth getting rid of those plug socket covers!

    Reply

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