Members of the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice suggest replacing violent video games and toy guns with sports equipment, board games and Legos this holiday season. by Mike Yoder
During World War II, “buy war bonds” was a popular phrase heard on radio dramas and seen on street posters. This holiday season, one Lawrence group is promoting a different phrase: “Don’t buy war toys.”
Members of the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice say children should not be exposed to violence or taught to make games from it. Group members are distributing fliers that say, “In this season of peace, don’t give the children you love toys of violence and war.”
The group is suggesting replacing violent video games and toy guns with sports equipment, board games and Legos.
“You look at some of those things that are so violent — blowing people away — and you think ‘gosh, what are we teaching our kids to value and to appreciate?’” said Allan Hanson, a spokesman for the coalition. He has been involved in the campaign for two decades.
Hanson, like a lot of Americans, grew up playing war, a legacy scholars say is a holdover from World War II. War toys, from guns to child-sized military uniforms, enjoyed a surge in popularity during those days when pretending to take out Adolf Hitler was a popular game for kids. Wartime mothers wrote letters in droves to publications like the Washington Post decrying their children’s newfound obsession with war.
“My 11-year-old son seems delighted at the war. His walls are full of maps; he gets the news eagerly. He and his friends talk constantly about going out and ‘blasting Hitler,’” wrote one mother in a letter reprinted in a recent issue of World War II magazine.
When it comes to how war play affects a child’s development, research findings have been mixed. In the 1960s, psychologist Albert Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiments found that children who watched a video of an adult hitting and verbally abusing a doll were likely to imitate that behavior. Other studies have found that countries that ban violent media for children have lower levels of violence. But others argue that many children are exposed to violence but do not end up becoming violent adults.
Recent research has focused on video games, “because it’s a really intense kind of engagement for kids,” said Laura Stephenson, an associate professor of psychology at Washburn University.
Last year, the American Psychological Association’s Review of General Psychology devoted an entire issue to video games. One study in that issue concluded that people with certain personality traits are more likely to be negatively affected by violent video games than the general population. This might explain why millions of people play video games without any apparent adverse effects, while only a few say those games drove them to violence.
Hanson said he is troubled by research linking violent play to aggression in children but does not argue such play will turn children into monsters. He believes it just makes sense to minimize the violence children are exposed to.
“There has always been a great deal of support,” Hanson said of the campaign. “When people take a look at our fliers, a lot of those people are very positive.”
The violent toys awareness campaign is one of several the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice carries out every year. One occurs before tax day when the group passes out fliers about the U.S. military budget. The other happens Aug. 6, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
— Reporter Aaron Couch can be reached at 832-7217. Follow him at Twitter.com/aaroncouch.
Tagged: violent toys, video games, christmas, toys
Comments
saticon (anonymous) says…
While I appreciate the idea behind all of this, I have to say that as a child my three brothers and I had "war" toys and even a jeep we could drive by way of pedals. We played army, etc. with plastic soldiers as well. This was the 60s and early 70s. We were using our imagination. Also, this was not all we played as we had tons of board games, train sets, race sets, and so on. So we weren't emerged in "war." That being said, we have grown up to be people who think war is not always the answer. I think the idea of the study done in the 60s where the kids watched someone be violent to another person should speak volumes in this day and age where so manyTV programs, movies, and video games treat human life as though it were unimportant. I don't think it is so much playing with "war" toys is so bad, but the amount of time spent doing it.
Jeteras (anonymous) says…
this is geared toward the 85% of parents that could give two $h*Ts less what their kids are doing or are too busy to talk with their kids and tell them to go play xbox and leave them alone. Me for one I let my child play any video game he wants because I sit with him and explain to him right from wrong. Mind you they need to be at the right age.. I got out my guns with my son when he was 5 or 6 and we took them all apart I showed him how safe you need to be with them and we go shoot all the time. Kill the curiosity when they are young and when they are at a friends house and their friend pulls out their dads gun because they found it. I want my son to be the one saying "Me and my dad shoot all the time and I dont touch anyone elses gun because it could be loaded" enough said!
iron_outlaw (anonymous) says…
First World problems....
Danimal (anonymous) says…
+1. I'm pretty sure war toys is way, way down the list of actual problems. As a combat veteran I've always thought the extremely graphic and violent video games kids are playing today are very likely a bad thing. But I've seen kids "playing war" all over the world, it's not an American phenomenon it's apparently just normal childhood behavior most places. Besides in this age of extreme childhood obesity anything that gets kids out and active (that doesn't involve crime or hoodlumry) who cares?
jhawks1510 (anonymous) says…
Really?
SAHM21 (anonymous) says…
Love the picture. The army guys from Toy Story are so violent...
beatrice (anonymous) says…
Instead of toy soldiers and GI Joes, get kids a board game -- like Risk. Don't let the little ones take part in pretend trench warfare, but let them learn how to take over the world. Or Monopoly, where they can become little land barons, kicking their own family members to the curb if they can't pay the rent on Boardwalk.
As long as it is age appropriate and the child won't choke on it, the toy isn't as important as the interaction by the parents. As Micheal Moore showed us, the kids at Columbine went bowling before their killing spree. Should we thus ban bowling balls?
I'm a liberal, but this stuff bugs me to no end.
ksfbcoach (anonymous) says…
XBOX 360 Modern Warfare 3. Call of Duty - World at War. The 2 games my son and his friends play non-stop. Video games trump toy soldiers with todays kids.
gl0ck0wn3r (anonymous) says…
Well this seems totally unbiased. Interview a hippy anthropology prof, provide vague historical context that likely came from the same source and finally interview an assistant psychology prof from a top notch psychology school. The research on this topic is very, very mixed but one wouldn't get that from this free advertisement for the organization.
JackMcKee (anonymous) says…
I always hated the army guy with the bayonet/rifle over his head. I could never figure out what the guy was supposed to be doing. I thought he looked like he was forging a river. Bazooka guy was awesome.
RoeDapple (anonymous) says…
Many children have parents, aunts, uncles in the military. Do you want to send the signal to these children that their heroes are bad people?
Fidogump (anonymous) says…
It has gotten to the point of being stupid. This group should also tell us that the next time someone bops sponge bob the show should be banned. Some people need to get a life.
Antonym (anonymous) says…
What a load of rubbish.
Violence and war is the only reason kids have the freedom to celebrate Xmas.
Talk about whizzing on the graves of all who fought for these ungrateful blobs to have the freedom to complain.
Maybe kids should only suck on passifiers until they're 21.
TheSychophant (anonymous) says…
A nice thought, but lets get real. With all the violence depicted in the mass media, in video games, and with our country's recent propensity of going to war, I hardly think that avoiding, or even banning war toys will do anything to change the real violence which occurs in our culture of violence.