Who needs these war toys?

Press, 18 December 1986, Page 12

Who needs these war toys?

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by

MAVIS AIREY

“Anger gets me running better than any other fuel. Prefers brute force to reason. Steam comes from his nasal ducts when he’s enraged. Smashes head-first into highway trestles and small buildings to relieve his aggression. Always feels better afterwards. Carries four exterior fuel tanks with a capacity of 1600 gallons as a reserve for himself and his comrades. His horns shoot bolts of 20,000 volt electricity. Carries a catalytic carbine that shoots destructive chemicals, and an electro-sword.” — (from the box of “Tantrum,” a toy robot)

When Peter Arnold read this description on the box of a children’s toy, he was horrified. “Children learn through play — about the world, about themselves, and about how to behave. When a parent gives a toy gun or a robot killing machine to a child, the message is ‘Guns are good. I want you to play killing people games and practise violence’,” he says. His concern was fuelled when he happened to see some television commercials one Saturday morning — not a time when he is usually watching and was shocked by the images of children grimacing and aiming guns, the exploding cars, and the emphasis on destruction. “It’s not bows and arrows any more,” he says. “The new breed of war toys is very high tech, with a black and white, naive morality. “The new idea is to justify it all as fighting terrorism, though they stop short of identifying the enemy as gooks or

Reds. Above all the message is that violence is a first resort to solving problems.” A young man, sporting a fashionable single earring, Peter Arnold is no fuddy duddy. He is not even a parent. But he hates violence and wanted to do something constructive, so he helped found the Christchurch branch of ‘Play for Life,’ an organisation which has loosely connected groups in various parts of New Zealand and overseas.

He describes ‘Play for Life’ as a child-protection group whose primary aim is to promote the sale and use of safe; non-violent toys that encourage constructive, co-operative, and imaginative play.

“It was a time when the crime-wave statistics were breaking and there seemed to be a lot of violence on TV. I felt — others too — that it would be nice to have a credible alternative to calling for stiffer sentences for criminals — action that would go to the roots of violence.”

He quotes an American psychiatrist, Dr Thomas Radecki: “The research of cartoon violence and violent toys is quite clear. These programmes and their violent -war toys are teaching children to be more violent, and desensitising them to the real

horrors of war and military combat. “The cartoon and violent toy studies show that these materials cause children to hit, kick, choke, push and hold down other children. They have found increases in selfishness, anxiety, and the hurting of animals. Sharing and school performance have been found to decrease.”

The Christchurch group now has a “hard core” of about 20, mostly people working in childcare, education or peace who have been interested in the subject for some time, not just parents but young people as well.

“It’s a young people’s issue,” Peter Arnold maintains. Keen not to appear as “just another anti-violent group,” it tries to emphasise positive ideas for constructive play as much as raising awareness about the harmful effects it believes war

toys have on children. They run information stalls at fairs and in shopping malls, and have compiled a list of resource material and play suggestions which is sent to enquirers.

Inspired by the example of a Wanganui headmaster who has found a significant decrease in aggressive play after toy guns were banned from the school three years ago, Play for Life encourages kindergartens and pre-school groups to declare themselves “War toy free zones.”

Some toyshops have agreed to display stickers with the same message, and the group has decided to present certificates of appreciation to toyshops that promote creative play.

The first certificate went to the Christchurch store, Every Educaid. It was endorsed by various

organisations including the Childcare Association, the Early Childhood Resource Centre, Montessori Association, National Council of Women, Play for Life and the Rudolf Steiner School. However, visits by

members to other stores in the city and suburbs revealed that war toys account for about 30 per cent of the stock in most toy shops, and of the 29 shops the group wrote to as part of a nationwide survey, only two replied.