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I decided on making a serious point this week. I'm a little dissappointed that The Daily Show beat me to the punch while I was working on this, but I decided to finish it as it was anyhow.
Currently there's a massive media frenzy questioning the saftey of Chinese toys after a rather large recall on several brands of toys (including Polly Pocket.) For a breif summary, we can turn to the ever-vigilant USA today:
"Toy-making giant Mattel (MAT) issued recalls Tuesday for millions of Chinese-made toys that contain magnets that can be swallowed by children or could have lead paint."
Now, in all fairness. Lead paint on toys is something of a genuine concern. There is no way that you as an intelligent and observant parent could tell that your child's toy car was painted with lead paint as opposed to the non-poisonous variety, and there should be a measure of control making sure that this does not happen. However, the recalls on other products range from over-precautious to ridiculous.
I spent hours searching the internet trying to figure out exactly what was so dangerous about swallowing a magnet. Apparently, there was a single case where a girl had swallowed two magnets, which pinched her intestine and eventually caused a rather serious infection.
One case, and the girl had to swallow two of them to create this rather unlikely scenario. However, I am forced to ask... just how many other things could this girl have swallowed and caused herself harm? It is equally likely she could have swallowed any other part of the Polly Pocket playset and abstructed her bowel with it. If your child swallows a part of a product that specifically contains a "Small parts, not recommended for young children" warning, who is really to blame here?
Manufacturers (Not just toy manufactuers) always seem to be the ones to blame when people or children hurt themselves with the manufacturer's product. But I feel like the world is just going overboard. Does a Circular Saw really have to have a giant warning that reads "Caution, keep hands away from spinning blade"? Just what person looks at this object slicing through wood and steel and somehow doesn't clue in that it might be a dangerous thing to touch?
As a society, we have to be able to draw the line somewhere and say "This is not the fault of the manufacturer, if you had any common sense you wouldn't have hurt yourself." If a mother gives a power drill to her toddler to play with, it is not Black and Decker's fault that they didn't include a "Warning, High Voltage Industrial Power Drills are not recommended to be used as toys by children ages 2 and under."
So many toys end up recalled because they're "unsafe". Great toys that are fun for millions of kids, until one kid hurts himself, and then the whole thing gets recalled. Why don't kids play nothing but video games? All the other fun toys aren't sold anymore.
How about instead of banning toys that have caused an injury or two, you just repackage them to proclaim a rather hefty warning. (not unlike cigarettes) "Surgeon General's Warning, this toy might hurt you if you do something stupid with it." Then all the kids who use the toy responsibly can keep playing with it, and the parents of the few kids who hurt themselves can no longer complain because they were made fully aware of the risks.
To summarize a great Comedian. (Although sadly I can't recall his name at the moment) We need more dangerous toys. If we don't have dangerous toys weeding out the stupid kids, they're just going to grow up and become stupid adults.
Darwin would be proud.
-Jalyss
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I'm not sure there's much left for me to say here. I think Jalyss might be a little harsh here... but I will admit I'm upset that I can't buy a yo-yo ball anymore.
She is right about one thing though. Toys just aren't fun anymore. Toystores don't have toys, they just have merchandise. Bland, uninteresting toys with faces of cartoon characters printed on them.
It's a very disheartening thing to see.
So umm... my turn next week. I'll see if I can lighten the mood some.
-Fox
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