UAE child car seat rules at a glance
Three rules carry fines, and one piece of official advice fills the gap between them.
| Rule | What it says | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Child seat | Children under 4 must be secured in a child safety seat suited to their weight and height | AED 400 and 4 black points |
| Front seat | No child aged 10 or under, or shorter than 145 cm, in the front | AED 400 |
| Seat belts | Every passenger, front and rear, must be belted | AED 400 and 4 black points for the driver |
| Booster advice | Keep children in a car seat or booster until about 145 cm | Advice, not a separate fine |
If you’re arriving with children, ask for the seat when you book your airport transfer. Put each child’s age and weight in your booking request and the seat comes with the car.
Which law sets the child car seat rules in the UAE?
The child seat and front seat rules arrived with the amended federal traffic law on 1 July 2017, alongside Ministerial Resolution No. 178 of 2017. The RTA’s 2022 child safety campaign quotes them from the executive regulations of the Traffic Law: back seats fitted with child seats “befitting their weight and height”, and no child “who is 10 or below, or less than 145 cm tall” in the front.
Then the law changed. Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2024 replaced the old 1995 traffic law and took effect on 29 March 2025. Gulf News, in an article updated in November 2025, still describes the same child seat rule, front seat rule and AED 400 fine. Older reports pin the front seat rule on Article 49. We couldn’t confirm the matching article number in the new decree-law, so we don’t quote one.
Read the front seat rule slowly, because people get it backwards. It’s an either/or ban. To ride in front, a child must be over 10 and at least 145 cm. Hitting one of the two isn’t enough.
Do taxis in Dubai have car seats?
Sometimes, and you can’t count on it at the rank. In 2018 the RTA sent a circular telling every taxi franchise and limousine company in Dubai to have a child car seat available at all times. The rule doesn’t say how many, so “available” can mean somewhere in the fleet rather than in the cab in front of you.
Careem went further in 2022 with Hala Juniors: 150 Dubai taxis fitted with seats for children up to four, bookable in the Careem app for AED 5 more than a standard Hala ride. Those seats ran from rear-facing for babies up to 10 kg to forward-facing for toddlers up to 18 kg. That’s the launch spec. Check the app for what’s on offer now, and note that an 18 kg ceiling leaves out a five-year-old who still needs a booster.
We found no exemption for taxis in the published rules. In fact the RTA’s rule book for taxi and limousine drivers adds its own fines: AED 100, then AED 150, then AED 200 for letting a child under 10 or under 145 cm sit in front. So when a taxi driver won’t let your eight-year-old ride up front, they’re following the rules. For a fuller look at taxi, app, Metro and private car options from the airport, see our taxi vs private transfer guide.
How the rules apply in a private chauffeured car
The law is the same in a chauffeured car as in a taxi or your own car. What changes is the planning.
At a taxi rank you find out whether there’s a seat when the boot opens. With a booked car, you tell us the ages and weights in advance and the seat travels with the car. It matters most at Dubai International. DXB has no pickup lane at Arrivals for private cars, so your driver meets you inside with a name board and walks you to the car park, where the car is waiting with the seat already in it. Our Dubai airport transfer page has the details on meeting points and waiting time.
Expect the driver to check belts before pulling away. It’s their permit and their fine if a child isn’t secured.
Car choice is where families most often go wrong. Each child seat takes a full seat place, and a rear-facing seat can also push the front seat forward. Two adults and one booster fit a sedan without trouble. Two adults, two children in seats and four suitcases don’t. For that, book a Mercedes V-Class with driver or one of our large SUVs, and for bigger family groups look at van and minibus hire with a driver. Our guide to choosing the right chauffeur car goes through sizes in more detail.
Which car seat for which age?
Seats sold in the UAE and Europe carry a UN approval label. Older seats use ECE R44, which sorts them by the child’s weight. Newer seats use R129, often called i-Size, which sorts them by height and keeps babies rear-facing until at least 15 months. The Hala Juniors seats were R44/04.
| Stage | Rough age | R44 weight group | What to tell us |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rear-facing infant carrier | Birth to 12-15 months | Group 0+, up to 13 kg | Age in months and weight |
| Toddler seat, rear or forward-facing | About 9 months to 4 years | Group 1, 9-18 kg | Weight, and whether you want it rear-facing |
| High-back booster | About 4 years until 145 cm | Groups 2 and 3, 15-36 kg | Height and weight |
| Adult belt alone | From about 145 cm | None | Height |
Ages are rough. Weight and height decide. A small three-year-old may still fit a Group 1 seat comfortably, and a tall five-year-old may already be on a booster.
Two opinions, held firmly. Keep a child rear-facing for as long as their seat allows. And don’t move a four-year-old onto the adult belt just because the legal minimum has passed. Abu Dhabi Police advises car seats until 145 cm, and that’s the standard we’d go by.
How to request a child seat from us
- Send pickup, drop-off, date, time and flight number on WhatsApp to +971 58 181 0789, or use the booking form, which opens WhatsApp for you.
- Add each child’s age, weight and height. “Two years, 13 kg” gets you the right seat. “Toddler” leaves us guessing.
- Say if you want an infant or toddler seat rear-facing.
- Pick the car around the seats. Count each seat as a passenger, then add the luggage. If it’s tight, we’ll suggest a van.
- Check the fixed fare we send back. It covers the car and the seats you asked for.
- At pickup, check the fit before you set off. Grip the seat where the belt passes through it and push side to side: it shouldn’t shift more than about 2.5 cm. Ask the driver to help with bags while you settle the children; under RTA rules, drivers must help load belongings when asked.
If you’re bringing your own seat, say so in step 2 and we won’t send a second one.
Common mistakes with child seats in the UAE
A rear-facing seat in the front passenger seat with the airbag switched on. Never do this. An airbag hitting the back of an infant carrier is exactly the crash these seats aren’t built for, and with an under-10 in the front you’re also breaking the law.
A baby on a parent’s lap “just for the 20 minutes to the hotel”. A lap isn’t a child seat, and the driver carries the fine.
Booking the car before counting seats. Families book a sedan for five, then discover two child seats eat the back bench.
Assuming the other emirates differ. The child seat and front seat rules are federal, so they apply the same way in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. If you land at Zayed International instead, the same planning applies to an Abu Dhabi airport transfer.
What we checked
We checked every rule on this page on 12 October 2026 against the RTA’s 2022 child safety release, the RTA’s rule book for taxi and limousine drivers, and Gulf News reports updated in 2025. The new federal traffic law’s article numbering for child seats is still unconfirmed, so if you need the legal citation itself, ask the RTA or your local police before you travel.
