Resurfacing on the internet: reverse image search as a tool for exposing the relisting of recalled toys across jurisdictions

PURPOSE: Children, as a vulnerable demographic, face significant risks associated with toys globally, but especially in jurisdictions with varying levels of market surveillance capacity. With the rise of e-commerce, it is essential to address the gaps in regulations and surveillance systems of toys that have known safety issues to reduce their circulation. While there is some literature about the circulation of recalled toys, we offer a novel pancontinental analysis of relistings of toys that have been recalled during a focal year (2023) in the USA and European Union (EU). METHODOLOGY: We sampled 79 unique recalled toys from the US' Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the EU's Safety Gate databases to determine whether they were relisted or not. Using Google Reverse Image Search, we manually looked up if the image provided in the recall announcement entry on either Safety Gate or the CPSC website reappeared on websites that listed the product for sale. FINDINGS: We found that 58 of the 79 toys (73.4%) in the sample were relisted domestically or elsewhere. About 50% of the resellers were in the USA and the EU, with the rest being in other regions, the two largest ones being Asia (19.7%) and the Middle East (11.4%). Half of the toys (50%) being resold posed choking hazards. Interestingly, a cross section between August 2025 and November 2025 revealed that 15 websites had taken down the relisted toys, lowering the number of available relisted toy models for sale from 75 (56.8%) to 60 (45.45%) out of the 132 relistings initially discovered. ORIGINALITY: Our findings provide evidence that policies and surveillance systems surrounding recalled toys need to be adapted to the growing online marketplace. Further research is needed to determine long-term trends in the relistings and whether there are similar patterns in the e-commerce markets for other industries.