When I was pregnant with Squidge, we talked about baby proofing and something Chris kept saying was that we didn't need to get covers for our plug sockets because they were already safe... I just put it to the back of my mind and thought 'we WILL be getting them'.
Well, as we're reaching the point where we need to actually baby proof it's something we've researched, and I've completely changed my decision, we most definitely won't be buying them. I'll get to why, but basically it's much more dangerous to have them.
Back in the 1940's a female electrical engineer called Caroline Haslett designed the current sockets we use. Her main goal was to design it so that children wouldn't be able to electrocute themselves by putting their fingers in the sockets. She built a couple of safety features in - such as the holes being small enough so that a child cannot get their finger in far enough to reach anything bad, but just in case there are insulated shutters.
The top pin on a plug opens up these shutters, that's why it's longer than the bottom pins of a plug. The problem with plug covers is that they can be manoeuvred so that only the top pin is plugged in, leaving the bottom holes open and live, so that if a child put something in those holes, they would be electrocuted - but this isn't possible with a standard plug (seriously - if you try and plug in upside down it won't happen!).
The UK has some of the safest plug sockets in the world, all thanks to Caroline Haslett. I'm not saying 'don't buy plug covers', but certainly research it yourself and read the information available before you make your decision. You can read more on it here.
We certainly won't be buying them.
