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Today’s Toys​—What Do They Teach Our Children?

CHILDREN have a natural urge to play. According to the book Choosing Toys for Children, healthy children “spontaneously create their own worlds of exploration and fantasy.” This was true even in ancient times. Back then it was common to see children ‘playing in the public squares.’ (Zechariah 8:5) Such play often involved creative, imaginative games.​—Compare Matthew 11:16, 17.

Appropriately, then, play has been called a child’s work, and if that is true, then toys can be said to be a child’s tools. Says Parents magazine: “Play is the way children learn about the world. . . . Playing with toys reduces the world to child-​size proportions, a world that a child can handle and control. Play develops muscles and coordination, fosters socialization, tests the barriers between reality and fantasy, and helps children learn to communicate with one another, to take turns, to share. Play stimulates the imagination and gives experience in problem-​solving skills.”

Toys were also important to children in Bible times. Excavations in Israel have unearthed a small treasure trove of children’s toys, such as rattles, whistles, and miniature pots and chariots. The World Book Encyclopedia states: “In ancient Africa, children enjoyed balls, toy animals, and pull toys. Children of ancient Greece and Rome had fun with boats, carts, hoops, and tops. During the Middle Ages in Europe, popular toys included clay marbles, rattles, and puppets.”

Toys that are stimulating, interesting, and educational still play an important role today. Yet, there is an alarming array of playthings on the market that are of doubtful worth. Says a 1992 article in Time magazine: “Don’t look to this year’s crop of new toys if you’re seeking some good, clean fun. Virtually every major manufacturer [is] accentuating the nauseating.” One line of toys included a life-​size plastic skull that children can style to be “as repugnant as possible.” Also for sale are toys that simulate body functions, such as vomiting. Parents and children alike are being subjected to formidable pressures to buy these toys.

Selling to Children

The journal Pediatrics in Review notes that the ancient “Code of Hammurabi made it a crime punishable by death to sell anything to a child.” However, today’s toy manufacturers and advertisers do not blush at pitching their expensive wares to guileless children. Using sophisticated research techniques, toy developers tap into the minds of children. And by continually adding new twists to their products, they can make last year’s model seem obsolete, and this year’s indispensable.

The toy industry also makes full use of the power of television. In the United States, television programming for children is virtually flooded with toy commercials. Using fancy camera work, special effects, and evocative music, the commercials make the dullest of toys seem magical, exciting. Although most adults can see through such manipulation, “younger children believe that commercials are telling the truth.”​—Pediatrics in Review.

Many of the shows directed at children amount to little more than program-​length commercials. According to the publication Current Problems in Pediatrics, such programs are “designed to sell a toy rather than to educate or enrich the lives of children.” The program Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for example, has spawned “over 70 products, a breakfast cereal, and a movie.”

According to Pediatrics in Review, “many studies demonstrate that children exposed to commercials nag their parents to buy the products advertised.” The founder of one international toy company says: “You just watch kids tugging at their parents’ coats and you know what they’re saying: ‘If I don’t have this toy, I will die.’” Little wonder, then, that in Canada alone, shoppers spend more than $1.2 billion each year on toys for their children, grandchildren, and friends.

War Games

Video war games are among the leaders in the toy industry. Proponents claim that such games help develop problem-​solving skills, eye-​hand coordination, and motor skills, as well as stimulate curiosity. “Used correctly,” says an article in The Toronto Star, “an electronic plaything can be harmless, even educational.” ‘But,’ the paper admits, ‘more often it’s an isolating activity, even an obsession.’

Consider one boy who became obsessed with playing video war games. Says his mother: “He’s incredible​—he won’t leave the screen until he kills everybody.” How old is this child? Only two years old! His tiny thumb is blistered from pushing buttons four to five hours a day. Yet, the mother seems unconcerned. “The only worry I have is he wants everything done like that,” she says with a snap of her fingers. The game “is so fast . . . , and real life’s not that fast.”

According to The Toronto Star, some opponents of video games feel that the games “discourage children from learning to amuse themselves with imagination, reading or other traditional pastimes, as well as tempting them away from school homework.” Some child educators even say that ‘video games are a seductive menace and are capable of encouraging a violent, reclusive behavior in children.’

Television news coverage of the bombings during the Persian Gulf war in 1991 stimulated a huge demand for more conventional war toys. Topping the list of popular items were models of Abrams tanks, Scud missiles, and Hind helicopters. Experts fear that playing with such toys may encourage aggression or perhaps desensitize children to violence. At the very least, doing so runs counter to the spirit of the Bible text at Isaiah 2:4, which foretold that God’s people would not “ever again be trained for war.”​—The New English Bible.

There have been occasions when realistic-​looking toys, such as high-​powered water guns, have triggered real violence. In one North American city, a high-​powered plastic water-​gun clash erupted into real gunfire, resulting in the death of a 15-​year-​old. In a separate incident, two youths were wounded by an enraged gunman after he was soaked by squirt guns. Numerous other violent incidents have been triggered by seemingly harmless water-​gun battles.

The Message You Send

Few responsible parents really approve of violence. Still, the war-​toy industry flourishes. Sometimes parents prefer to compromise their own beliefs rather than to incur the wrath of a child. In doing so, however, they may be doing the child untold harm. Canadian mental-​health researcher Susan Goldberg argues: “When we give toys to children, we’re indicating our approval of what a toy represents.” True, it is only normal for some children at times to display some aggressive behavior. “Without toy guns,” argues one psychologist, “children would make their own versions, even using their fingers.” Maybe. But should a parent encourage aggression by providing children replicas of the arms of violence?

It is also true that few children will actually take up a life of crime simply because they played with a toy gun. But if you give your children such toys, what message are you sending? Do you want them to believe that violence is fun or that killing and war are exciting? Are you teaching them respect for God’s standards? His Word says: “Anyone loving violence [God’s] soul certainly hates.”​—Psalm 11:5.

Susan Goldberg further notes that ‘the more time children engage in violent play with silent approval of parents, the more likely they are to use aggression to solve problems.’ The Bible says at Galatians 6:7: “Whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap.” Can a child possibly reap good personality traits from violent play?

To be fair, it must be acknowledged that all children are different. One child may get addicted to an electronic game, but another may not. And whether children really relate the electronic zaps on a video screen to real-​life violence is open to debate. Parents must therefore decide what is best for their own children and exercise great care in the selection of their children’s toys.

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Playing helps children learn how to relate to one another