Why Call of Duty Toys Should Be Banned

I’m raging. 

My children are in full swing writing Christmas lists and sharing what they would like to find under the Christmas tree. I find the girls really easy to buy for. I find Dylan harder – the boy loves his X Box and Wii U but I refuse just to buy games. I think that at only nine (almost ten),  he should be playing with toys too. I sat him down with a supplement from today’s newspaper to see if anything caught his eye. As he looked he was drawn to a range of toys that I didn’t even know existed. Call of Duty toys – you know the game that has a pegi age rating of 18 (or the newest 16)?

Most parents of tweens / teens will have heard of this game. It is a game I will not allow Dyl to play, due to the language used in it. My husband does not ‘game’ therefore I have never actually seen this game in action, but with two brothers who tell me it’s rated at 16/18 for a  reason, it means that it won’t be found in our home.

I teach and I see students tired from playing this game late at night. I know it’s themes and I don’t like it. Therefore, I was more than a little angered to see a range of toys marketed at tweens and early teens bearing the trademarked name ‘Call of Duty’.

What an absolute farce.  The toys will encourage the idea of the game. How on earth can selling toys to children from a game for adult use be deemed as appropriate?  It normalises the game. Now I know guns and combat toys have been sold since the dawn of time (I remember my brother with his cowboy hat and cap gun) but there was an innocence about those toys which is different to the case here.

Thankfully Dyl didn’t even ask for these toys – I expect he would have known the answer. However I wonder how many will have this on their wishlist followed by the game itself on the next list?

Children are not children for long and these toys, in my opinion, should not be aimed at children. Especially when other products of the same branding are clearly, legally aimed at adults.

What do you think? 

Courtesy: http://www.tots100.co.uk/2013/12/06/why-call-of-duty-toys-should-be-banned/