Our story
It started with a boy called Micky
In 1999, Catherine Hovenbitzer was trying to find something that would stop her eight month old son, Micky, pulling on dangling power cords. In two or three pulls he had the cord out, leaving an active and exposed power point.
She looked for a product that would restrict access to the power point itself and could not find one. Plug covers blocked the holes, which does nothing about a plug that is already in the socket or a switch beside it.
So she designed the Power Point Safety Cover, and named it after him.
The problem she was solving
Why a safety switch is not the whole answer
Casualty admissions of children with electrical shock injuries from power points are high. According to the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset, over 70 per cent of electrocutions in 0 to 9 year olds happen before the age of five.
An earth leakage device does not eliminate the injury. It reduces the intensity of the shock. Even a minor shock can cause serious injury, or real distress to a child and their parents.
Micky Ha Ha aims to prevent the contact in the first place, with a cover that stops objects, and fingers, finding their way into a power point at all.
Still made the same way
Micky Ha Ha is still Australian made and Australian owned. The design has not needed to change, because the problem has not.