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

I think this is why people are saying that this kind of restriction can't be enforced. I don't know what RingDoll is doing in terms of how they're trying to enforce it (like, do they have people check a box, or do they put in a birthday...?), but if a parent thinks it's OK for their child to have said doll, they can find their way around it. Trying to enforce it is nice for RD's butts, but like you said, besides that, the parent has to be responsible. And like I said, I think it's probably going to be pretty tricky for RD to actually be successful at enforcing it.

Also, when it comes to trying to enforce the age limit, it might backfire. When kids (and even adults) are told that they can't have something that they want, they want it more. If I were a kid, and I saw that a doll wasn't going to be sold to anyone under a certain age, I would be terribly curious to find out why.

 

I think I might just love you for this post, seriously. I thought I was the only one seeing a very pathetic attempt at backpedaling there (once not everyone hated the same subject the OP hated, which I'm sure came as a shock since she appeared so convinced that everybody felt the way she did) that only managed to spiral off further into generalized madness, but obviously not.

I have serious reservations about bubble-wrapping the universe in the way that appears to be suggested here. I know my parents had plenty of things that I was not supposed to get into when I was a child. They did what many parents do: they told me not to touch it, play with it, etc. or they hid it or put it in a room I was not permitted to enter. I really don't see what is so astonishingly hard about any of that approach that can't be done in precisely the same way today. Instead, it's 'even adults shouldn't have X, Y, or Z because what if Little Suzy finds it!' Then Little Suzy gets a talking to by her parents, for good or ill. (Explaining mystery thing, or punishment for breaking one of the 'do not touch/go in there' rules.) This is really, really not the hard math!

I had terrible nightmares as a kid, and night terrors diagnosed. I love horror and related genres today. I find a great deal of creative inspiration in them. Scary today is not necessarily scary tomorrow. *shrug* Sometimes the doll may be the thing that proves it's not worth being scared of a piece of plastic, rather than more fuel for the fire. Sad how that option seems just completely off the table in the OP's list of assumptions about the necessarily negative nature of such content.

 

This, this so much. I found out some doll was off limits, I would go out of my way to find out why.
When I was a kid I desperatly wanted to see the film Pulp Fiction, whenever I asked why I wasn't allowed to see it, I was told "that's a grown up film". Somehow in my mind that grew into meaning that it was some triple X extreme porno, when I actually saw the movie it wasn't nearly as bad as I had made it out in my mind. Am I saying I should have been allowed to see it as a kid, no way, but I do think that my parents should have taken more time to actually talk to me and explain why I wasn't allowed to see it.
Same with the bjds I think it should be up to the parents of kids to talk through things with their kids, and give the kids some credit that they arn't going to be tramatized by every little thing, kids have great imaginations and they can often imagine things much worse than the reality is.

 

^Yes; when parents try to bubble-wrap the world too much for their children, they do their kids a disservice. That kid is going to not have the proper tools to adapt to a non-bubble-wrapped world.

 

Come to think of it, one of my worst doll experiences was when i was running a GO and one of the GO members, to my surprise, turned out to be very minor and to have very, very non-consenting adults who treated my like i was corrupting their child and trying to sell her a barbie for 170 euro and these parents where really, really rude to me.

And that was a DZ Shoyo.

 

Not to say that if you protect children too much, they'll end up just as psychologically damaged as traumatized kids. Ever heard of that kid who's afraid to leave the house because mommy used to tell him of all the bad stuff that happened outside? Yeah, that sounds healthy.

As with all parenting, it's up to the caretakers to make a balanced decision of what to expose a child to and it's the parent's responsibility to actually be there for the child when he comes across something he might not understand.

 

I don't care to take part in the "should" this or that be allowed part of this discussion. But I do understand that Ringdoll, by legal obligation, had to put up that restriction. In some places it is regulated by law that minors are not allowed to see, hear or read materials relating to blood, horror or gore. Regardless on if it is right or if it "should" be that way, that is the law and if you like it or not, it has to be obeyed by everyone. It's not like this is a new thing just with these dolls. There are even horror books - written words with no pictures - that qualify under this legal restriction with minors.

 

Actually, the only actual lawful restrictions I can think wherein minors are not allowed to lawfully purchase items with high horror or gore contact are R rated movies and M rated video games, and even then, they're allowed to with parental permission and the guidelines are rarely enforced when purchases are even made in person.

A lot of horror movies, that are full of more disturbing and gross things than these dolls, are actually rated PG13, which actually does not bar minors from buying them. It just suggests parents should check it out. And even then, it's usually not for the horror so much as the secondary drug and alcohol use and sex scenes they get hit with the higher ratings. I can't think of a bookstore I have ever gone to where they ID'd people trying to buy horror novels. Susie Six Year Old could go to Barnes & Noble and buy the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft if she wanted to.

If children can buy Living Dead Dolls or Chucky replicas or gory Halloween masks legally, which they can, I really can't imagine there is a law out there judging the relative gore factor of expensive collectible artist dolls and saying only over 18 can buy. I managed an FYE for years. We openly displayed and sold McFarlane figures and horror movie memorobilia, and the figures were often way more detailed and racy than these dolls.

eta - trying to remember if my younger sister's Fangoria subscription had some sort of adult necessary purchase. She was and still is a huge gorehound, even at a very young age. The girl's fave movie as a kid was Hellraiser because she thought Pinhead was cool.

 

I don't think there should be an age limit. What some kids might find frightening, others don't. It's up to parents to impose limits on these things. Myself, I wouldn't have minded gory dolls at all and don't find gore frightening. I tended to make my own weird and freaky things anyways. The books I chose and the movies I watched reflected this as well.
So no. No age restrictions.

 

I think that's where the confusion comes from on my part. The OP is clearly in favor of such a restriction -- and the restriction is already there. So what's to be argued for? That's where I get totally lost here.

Usually parental consent is a factor, from what I understand. If the parents consent, which they must in this case, I really fail to see the problem.

Can people lie and misrepresent themselves? They sure can -- but I don't see any reasonable way that can be prevented. How many kids get into things they aren't allowed to? Plenty. There's only so much anyone can do to prevent it from happening, however, before it becomes a case of 'just ban this because the kids will get into it no matter what steps are taken to prevent them from doing so', and that's not really a reasonable option.

 

^ Right; the gore BJD looks tame to some of the things available in stores here. What about party stores during Halloween? My local party store used to have a high wall of masks covering cartoon characters, politicians, and horror movie characters (known and unknown). I used to see them every year as a kid, as I was going to pick out my costume. Yes, they were scary to me, but not scary enough to traumatize me.

Like I said, these dolls look pretty tame in comparison, especially if you look at everything readily available in stores.

 

Rikka brings up a good point. Within the USA the most common restrictions apply to video games and movies. But what about other countries? Do they have similar laws? Would those laws encompass dolls? Perhaps that's why Ringdoll put up their warning.

 

There's a very good chance that this particular restriction from Ringdoll is to cover their legal butts in their own country and region of the world. I can't figure out the right search terms for Google to bring up specific laws and details, but remember China isn't exactly the US when it comes to violent media. This is the same country who has special restrictions on MMOs (no blood, no skeletons, etc), and censored media and internet access. If the Chinese government decided that Ringdoll was knowingly supplying children with gore dolls, they'd probably be shut down.

To be on topic (should kids OWN the dolls), I'm with the majority in saying that it's up to the parents whether or not their child should see/access/own these particular dolls. Age =/= maturity and blah blah blah. Besides, I'm convinced that any kid today who's truly interested in seeing these dolls, can and will find pictures of them on the internet regardless of their parent's wishes.

 

Personally I am not a fan of gore dolls but there is really no way to control who buys them. If a child is sneaky enough to buy a doll without their parents consent for using their paypal account or credit cards then I think the parents deserve what they get, because they are obviously doing something wrong. But that applies with gore or regular dolls (or anything).
If you make your own money however, that is a different matter. Buy what you want.
As far as scaring younger siblings...that's just mean. If you have a creepy doll keep it to yourself. But these are personal decisions and it's not like there will ever be a way to control what other people do in the comfort of their own homes.
I also think Ringdoll is just trying to cover their own butts by putting the whole parental consent thing on there.

 

honestly I find it more important to educate children on horror and gore rather than HIDE it from them. The more one tries to HIDE it from them, the scarier it will get.

In the halloween store, there was a chainsaw with red paint on it, representing blood. This one child was terrified, and his mother brought it over to him and said

"No hunny, look, it's just plastic! here, feel!" and she rubbed her sons hand over it, and when he almost touched the 'blood,' he started to cry and said "IS THAT BLOOD?" and she said, "no, it's just paint, see?" and she had him touch it to feel that it was in fact dry, and flat, and just red paint.

Did this make the kid like it? No. Did he take it home with him? Nope. But he was a lot calmer and more open to walking around the store.

The dolls are fake. It's plastic and red paint. Children need to learn these things. They shouldn't be restricted to them because I imagine that may make things even more scary.

 

I second Selidor. Furthermore, if a kid wants that kind of scary doll, then obviously that doll does not scare the kid... so what's wrong with the child having it? They'll probably have to go through their parents to get it anyway, what with the amount of money involved and the fact that you have to use Paypal.

 

i dont think its any big deal, i mean when its halloween you know all the little kids love to go out and get the candy and theres all kinds of people dressed in scary outfits, but when it comes to a gore doll it cant be purchased without parental consent if under 17? personally ive been a fan of gore sence 14, video games and movies have these restrictions so i dont mind anyway
if your underage you still need a parent to purchase something online for you anyway because you need a credit card or paypal

 

I have a number of friends who specifically list having seen the Chucky movies when they were too young for them as why they can't stand to look at my dolls. So yeah, horror MOVIES? Not for kids.

But an equal number of my doll phobic friends are afraid of them because of their grandmother's porcelain doll collections.. So should we also age-restrict children from seeing any kind of porcelain doll, based on the number of people I know who were terrified of them as kids?

 

Hm. Perhaps it would be best to keep all dolls away from children and only issue them to adult collectors.



(For all the Sheldon Coopers among us: this is meant as a LOL and not a comment on any individual post).

 

When I looked up Norman, I thought he was just a normal well-dressed male doll... and then POW. Makes me fearful of gloomy male dolls >.>;;