Is it safe to buy children’s glasses online?

No matter if it safe or not to buy children’s glasses online in the UK, it’s actually illegal! It is safe to buy children’s frames online, but not lenses and for good reason.

These days, of course, you can get just about anything you want online, and usually at considerably cheaper prices than on the high street.

However, just because you can buy something online does not mean you should. In the UK, amendments to the Opticians Act 1989 and distance selling regulations made it illegal to sell lenses for children under the age of 16 online, or via distance selling. Sure you can buy the frame, but you must physically visit a licensed optician in the UK to get the lenses.

In the US, it is legal to buy lenses and frames for children online. But a study by the Optometry Journal found that nearly half of all the glasses it ordered online had a problem. That includes wrong prescriptions, incorrect lens type, or a failure to pass impact testing.

Getting frames that fit is also pretty crucial for children. The bridge of a child’s nose is still developing and won’t hold up the glasses as an adult’s nose will. The nose fittings on the glasses need to be adjusted by an optical expert to stop the glasses constantly sliding down. Sound advice!

Penzer Opticians at Maypole, Birmingham has been looking after children’s eye care needs for over forty years and always welcomes new patients – especially young ones!