A victim support group in Australia is calling for Mattel’s Naruto action figures be removed from store shelves because the toys can be used to act out stabbing and slashing.
The Daily Telegraph reports the Homicide Survivors Association says the figures, marketed to ages 6 and up, teach children a dangerous lesson.
“I think there’s a link between playing with these toys and violent behavior later,” group founder Peter Rolfe tells the newspaper. “It doesn’t happen to everyone but it can have an effect on people with problems. … If they play with toy weapons does it make them more comfortable with real weapons later? At some stage there’s an imprint left on them.”
Mattel, for its part, says it’s up to parents to decide whether their kids should play with knife-wielding ninja figures.
(Via Giapet)
August 31st, 2007 at 4:59 pm
This is just like when my parents bought me TMNT toys and took away all the weapons. People overreacting–teenage girls read Naruto for the pretty boys, not the fighting, and boys read Naruto for the fighting, but who the hell’s going to have a gun cabinet full of shuriken and kunai when he’s 30?
September 12th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
naruto rocks. they are not action figures that teach you violince!!
September 23rd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Nauto is a very cool show. The action figures are not to teach you ways of killing. Bisides whoses going to become a ninja and kill everybody.