Should Some Sort Of Age Limit Be Imposed Regarding The Sale Of Gore-Themed Dolls?

I don't see the need, or even a practical way to go about this. How many children young enough to be disturbed by gore dolls have the means to purchase them online anyway? In order to use services like PayPal (not to mention credit cards) you're supposed to be eighteen, and if you're already lying about your age to PayPal then the doll companies aren't going to know any better. I'm sure there are those over the age of eighteen who buy creepy dolls and then show them to children, but it's impossible to police these things. The most a company could do would be do add a notice/disclaimer to the doll page advising people that the doll isn't suitable for children, but that seems pointless.

 

I don't see the point. If a 13 year old girl has the money and wants to buy one, then she should be ale to buy one. It would be her choice and she would probably not be scared of it.
There will always be people around you that are scared of dolls, even non gorey ones. You can talk about it with the person who owns the doll, explaining you find it scary, but this should not affect the people that actually buy them.

 

I find this to be rediculous. it is not like any child could buy a Ringdoll on their own. ven if comeing from a well to do family, I doubt the child would have access to the cast, paypal or credit card needed to complate the purchase. The only thing I agree to those restrictions for are controlled substances and pornography. Outside of that, I do not think we need the doll police telling us who can buy what doll.

 

Why?! Aside from the obvious pointlessness of attempting to police what people do in their own collections that are NONE OF OUR BUSINESS, what kid under the age of 18 is able to buy something that expensive online without the assistance of an adult anyway?!

Seriously, if you don't like it, that's what backbuttons were invented for.

 

Um, no. If someone doesn't like the doll, then they don't buy the doll. If they like the doll and have the money, then they can consider buying the doll. It's a personal choice. Though this hobby has it's share of younger members, these dolls aren't really meant for children, so why would a company need to bend over backwards to protect children from their dolls?. Not to mention that reactions towards such dolls vary from person to person, family to family, and culture to culture. At some point, the individual needs to make their own decisions regarding themselves and their family, and not foist that responsibility on everybody else.

 

I think the age restriction for those dolls is more to cover RD's butt? So that, say, parents won't discover (by surprise!) that their son/daughter has bought a gorey doll and try and take it up with the company.

It's kind of silly, really. I mean, if a kid under 17 (16, 15, etc, probably) wants a gorey doll--there ARE other means of building one up other than buying some special "consent" doll. In all honesty, it'd be easy enough to buy any doll, recreate their own version of Jessica's face, buy clothes and dye the "blood" spots onto them... and I think the chainsaw prop is offered at MoC itself? If not, I'm sure it'd be easy enough to find a weapon for such a doll.

I don't know. Considering how prevalent horror movies are, as well as violence in media in general, I don't think a gorey doll like that is such a fuss. Should a 16-year-old not be able to pick up something like a Living Dead Doll, either? If they want a doll like Jessica or Norman, they're going to find a way to have one (whether or not it's the company fullset). If it concerns parents so much, they should talk to their kids about it, ask them (genuinely) why they're so into zombies/gore/etc, rather than just cast it off as something forbidden.

 

No. This entire idea is ridiculous. I'm sorry you think the Ringdoll dolls in particular are horrible (I love them!), but really you don't have the right to decide what other people should think about them. I also disagree with Ringdoll's policy on needing parental consent. As an avid fan of Marilyn Manson and other similar artists, I had seen way scarier things than them before I was 17! I can tell you that when I was twelve (in other words, too young to be allowed on this forum), if you had showed me those dolls, I wouldn't have thought them scary. I would have thought them awesome.

As an owner of some very scary dolls, I have had comments from people to stop posting my photos of them because they give people nightmares (I imagine they feel along similar lines as you, that all dolls should be cute and pretty and harmless). But I can assure you that I love my scary dolls and many people agree with me that horror-themed dolls can be absolutely beautiful and an enriching element in the dolly community.

When I post photos of my dolls, most people who know me know my taste in dolls, and if they don't like to look at scary dolls they simply don't look, which is fine by me. I can understand that my dolls aren't to everyone's taste, and I often put warnings on my photos so that people know what to expect. I think

If you had told the twelve-year-old me to stay away from such dolls because you don't think they'd be suitable for one so young, I'd have told you in no uncertain terms exactly where to put your opinions. :

 

I'm fine with movies having restrictions because films these days are very graphic in ensuring that their gore is portrayed as "realistically" as possible, but to censor a doll from a younger crowd seems ridiculous to me. Movies are set specifically with the intention of evoking a thought or sensation within the audience; these dolls are designed generally with the intention of simply creating a pleasing aesthetic. Moreover, typically I haven't met very many (read: any) kids 17 or under who are allowed to purchase dolls--or anything equally expensive, or anything online at all--without their parents overlooking the purchase first.

I must refer back to Robert Heinlein for this: "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." Rather than put an age limitation on steak, it makes much more sense to keep those who can't chew it--or don't like it--away from it.

 

I do not think there should be an age limit on purchasing gore dolls. There is not an age limit on purchasing mature bodies.

 

I've loved gore and guro since I was in 5th grade.
It never scarred me or gave me nightmares.
Fyi, I know people who find it offensive the way some people think no one should like gore.
It's like "Wow, you like such creepy things?! That's impossible! Why would someone /like/ something like that!"
Just my 2 cents.

 

this is lame why should there be a age limit????well i think it useless when people who are below 17 can ask someone who is older to help them buy it, and they are only gore dolls not gore movies why need parental consent?very ridiculous

 

I read my first Stephen King novel when I was 7. My mother was pleased I was such an advanced reader at my age and was interested in something offbeat. She could not have cared less about me wanting a gory doll.

I had never heard of Ringdoll's policy towards their two dolls but I find it highly difficult to enforce and probably something they wrote up to try and protect themselves, which is a sad sign of the world we live in.

People who can't handle their children seeing things they don't like need to actually parent their children and not leave it up to the rest of the world to do. I certainly don't care about what you think is or is not appropriate for your child to see, and no one can tell me what to do with my own dolls or my buying habits.

 

So many assumptions, so little time.

Well, if you think they should have such a restriction, you shouldn't have anything to worry about, since that restriction is already present there. So why does this complaint exist in the first place?

Then don't buy them.

And with the sales restrictions they have in place, you have nothing to worry about. So why is this still an issue again?

Where are you getting the idea that they are trying to sell these to young children when not only do they have an age restriction for sales in place, but the target market for $$$ dolls is not young children in the first place?

Also, have you taken a stroll down the action figure aisle in an actual toy store for children lately? Much worse is present there.

I have no siblings, younger or otherwise -- so why would I ever have to worry about this? I wouldn't. If someone does, that is their concern to deal with.

And who is to say people don't? What if the parents or family members are horror fans and like them? It's wrong to assume they won't universally, since all people are different.

...and that has what to do with these dolls in particular?

Stop making assumptions about everyone else's parents, first. My parents would not care, even if I was under 20, which I am not. In fact, they find the more bizarre sculpts I have to be the most interesting.

And, again, there already is a limit. You've mentioned this yourself. If the limit is already there, I ask again: what on earth is the complaint here?

 

I agree with the rest of the posters, but people seem to be missing why Ringdoll probably put that warning up there.

Simply put, yes, to cover their arses. Young kids ARE given credit and debit cards these days (I am 19 -- I recall when I was 14/15 hearing about some classmates having been given a credit card under their parents' name) and it is also common for them to know the parents' personal card numbers (I speak from experience, although I never bought anything without permission, I will say).

Imagine you're a parent and walk into your young child's (early teens) room to see a rather odd looking doll sitting on their bed, maybe naked maybe not, with (in Ringdoll's case) blood dripping from its eye socket, looking rather dead and decrepit. You would freak out!! If you knew nothing of this purchase or of these dolls, yes, you probably would be looking to inflict similar wounds on the person who gave your child that doll.

Each person is different, each parent is different. I don't have children, but a lot of parents these days are overprotective. I know my mother was very strict regarding such things; once I asked to purchase a print of a piece of digital art, a gore piece involving two (beautifully) drawn characters, one with their head lopped off. She was stunned and offended and immediately told me no chance in hell. If she had just found that art on my wall in my room one day...? I would have been dead, and so would have the artist (through no fault of their own).

We live in a lawsuit-happy society, so while I don't agree that if someone under 17 wants to purchase something with their own money, they should have to verify it with their parental units first, it's a smart step on Ringdoll's part. Gore and stuff like that is popular with the young crowds these days, and it's simply a matter of avoiding losing your business because of one overprotective, overreacting parent.

(But ultimately, parents should be watching their childrens' purchases online and such...)

In a nutshell, I disagree with the OP, I don't think there should be a standard age for purchasing gore-related dolls. But at the same time I *sort of* understand where they are coming from. Personally I like the dolls a lot, but in this discussion, personal taste should have nothing to do with it.

/end rant.

 

Kid has or wants gory doll? I wouldn't care. Kid buys $$$$ doll with my credit card online without asking? I would care and I would be highly angry at my child for being dishonest and myself for allowing them access to my finances when they were not ready for it. It would in no way be the doll company's fault because how would they know the circumstances involved in the sale? There is a level of trust that has to be in place to make online purchases, that the person on the credit card is the person doing the buying, and if all of the required verification is present, they've done their job.

It really is sad and pathetic that parents hold everyone else accountable for their children's behaviour except for the ones that actually accountable- themselves and the child involved.

I really cannot stand "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!1!1" response as an excuse for attempts at censorship or to control what people do.

 

This. I'd be far more irritated that my hypothetical child spent hundreds of dollars without my permission on my credit card than the doll.

 

I don't think so. Well, I never liked ratings in the first place. I think it's more important to have the conversation with a child about icky things (why is it icky, why a parent doesn't think it's for kids, etc.) than barring a kid from icky things because they will see them one way or another especially in this internet age...

Though I've noticed my Dollmore box says "Ages 7 and up" and my Dollzone box says "Ages 13 and up" though all of Dollzone's dolls are pretty tame and Dollmore had that Halloween horror movie limited that a lot of people got angry over. @_@

 

My parents saw much weirder things than that in my room, I must say, when I was growing up. But as far as I know, they never felt the need to "inflict similar wounds" on the creators of the weird art and music I liked. They just chalked it up to their having a weirdo kid! But then again, I bought all my own stuff with my own money that I'd saved up, which probably proved I was mature enough to make my own decisions about what kind of things I wanted to buy, creepy or not.

 

From a purely logistical standpoint, age limits on dolls would not work with 100% accuracy. It's impossible for a customer in another country to prove their age to someone in a different one. What are you going to do, scan your driver's liscense? Without being there in person, there just isn't a way to verify your age that could not be forged or somehow gotten around.

If one member of a household is going to bring something very scary into the house, it is common courtesy to make sure that all of the members of the house are okay with it. This has nothing to do with age or even maturity. If you share a room with a sibling who has a doll phobia, then you should not keep dolls where they will be terrified by them.

Different parents have different methods of raising kids. Some parents buy Grand Theft Auto (it has all the controversial stuff, language, violence, crime, sexual themes, drug references, etc) for their 7 year old kids, and some are very careful about programming their TV to block certain channels and the internet to block certain key words. These decisions are to be made by parents; there is no one-size fits all solution for when kids are ready for what things.