A recent Which? investigation found that a third of children’s sunglasses bought from online marketplaces including Amazon, AliExpress, eBay and Temu did not provide the required protection and were unsafe
When in the market for a new pair of sunglasses, style shouldn’t be your only consideration – prioritising how well they shield your eyes from harmful UV rays is equally crucial.
According to a recent Which? investigation, a third of children’s sunglasses purchased from online marketplaces including Amazon, AliExpress, eBay and Temu failed to provide the necessary protection and were deemed unsafe.
Which? researchers procured 20 pairs of children’s sunglasses from online marketplaces, discovering that UV protection levels were “dangerously low” for two of them, despite assertions they offered full protection. The Mirror approached Amazon, AliExpress, eBay and Temu for comment.
A spokesperson at Amazon told The Mirror: “Safety is a top a priority at Amazon, and we require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws, regulations and Amazon policies. We continuously monitor our store and take action to maintain a safe selection for our customers, including removing noncompliant products and reaching out to sellers, manufacturers, and government agencies for additional information.
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They added: “If customers have concerns about an item they’ve purchased, we encourage them to contact our Customer Service directly so we can investigate and help resolve their issue. The products in questions have been removed.”
An eBay spokesperson also shared a statement, saying: “At eBay, consumer safety is a top priority. We proactively keep our site safe and prevent prohibited listings through seller compliance audits, block filter algorithms for unsafe listings, and AI-supported monitoring by our team of in-house specialists. Our filters blocked 32.6 million attempts to list potentially unsafe products in 2023. Additionally, our Regulatory Portal enables authorities to report listings, and unsafe items are automatically removed within two hours.
“If we find an unsafe product, we remove it immediately and alert buyers, which is the exact approach we took on April 4, 2025, before Which? contacted us.”
Temu’s spokesperson weighed in, telling The Mirror: “We take product safety very seriously. All three flagged listings have been removed from the platform pending further review. As a precaution, we expanded screening of similar products to ensure full compliance with UK safety regulations. Temu works closely with globally recognized testing and certification organizations to help ensure that the products offered by third-party sellers meet relevant safety and quality standards.”
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AliExpress told The Mirror they had doubled down on product safety, saying in a statement: “AliExpress takes product safety very seriously and we have strict rules and policies in place to ensure a safe online shopping environment. Third-party sellers who list items for sale on our marketplace must comply with the applicable law as well as our platform rules and policies. AliExpress requires the merchants to submit photos of the product package and label reflecting CE or UKCE when listing children’s sunglasses on our platform for verification.
They added: “The product will not be allowed for listing in case the photos submitted do not meet the requirements. Nevertheless, AliExpress as a marketplace does not own or control the physical products, while AliExpress conducts random inspections on the physical products and takes action against the merchants selling non-compliant products, but we may not be able to verify the compliance of all the physical products.”
Protective features your sunglasses should have
Dr Paramdeep Bilkhu, clinical adviser at The College of Optometrists says that glasses should include protective features, such as shielding from UVA and UVB rays.
“Ensure that your glasses shield your eyes against UVA and UVB rays as they are the two types of UV light which can inflict the most damage to the eyes,” recommends Dr Bilkhu. “There should be a marker on either side, or the inside of the frame, which indicates that it’s either CE marked or UKCA marked. This signifies that the lenses comply with the British Standards and have been manufactured to the correct parameters to protect against the harmful UV light that can cause harm to the eye.
“If your sunglasses don’t carry these marks, you should be very wary about whether or not they actually provide the level of protection needed.”
Dr Bilkhu also recommends sunglasses with thicker sides that wrap around the face, as these offer more protection because they’ll block the harmful rays from more angles, rather than just from the direction of the lens. “For example, if you’re near water or are going on the ski slopes, light can bounce up from the ground, so the wrap-around style offers more protection in these instances,” she explains.
How to tell if your eyes are suffering from UV damage
“The effects of UV exposure is cumulative for longer term conditions, so there won’t be any immediate symptoms. But if people do feel their eyes becoming very sore, very red, watery or light sensitive then that could indicate that they may be experiencing that sunburn of the eye caused photokeratitis,” says Dr Bilkhu.
“However, those symptoms are often non-specific and could be caused by other conditions as well, so if anybody has any acute eye symptoms like that, you should contact a local optometrist for advice as soon as you can.”
Does damage on sunglasses affect UV protection?
“If the lens’ surface is damaged that could potentially impact the protection that’s offered,” Bilku notes. “Any scratching or breakdowns of the surface of the sunglasses or coatings would impact the quality, so make sure that they’re in good repair.
“Store them in a case when they’re not being worn, and clean them using the lens cloth and lens cleaner to keep them in good condition.”
What else can we do to protect our eyes from the sun?
Bilku advises: “The sun is directed from above you, so wearing a wide-brimmed hat, in addition to the wearing sunglasses, offers the maximum protection to protect your eyes”.