Via ANN.
Sometimes you just have to get some anger out, and sometimes a target is handed to you on a silver platter. This is one of those times. To summarize, a 2 year old boy was playing with a plastic capsule, one of those things that holds a little anime bauble of some kind, likely very similar to the ones you buy here. He choked on it and it caused brain damage. Bandai is ordered to pay $250k in damages even though they were in complete safety compliance.
Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not going to make a jest at this. It’s tragic, my condolences to the family and all that. What they’re going to have to deal with for the rest of their lives will take a large toll on them.
From the article, the court stated that it’s “reasonable to expect that children under three will play with a capsule after the prize is removed.” It also offered some other guidelines to make it “safer.”
Allow me to play Devil’s Advocate though. If it’s reasonable for the court to expect a child would want to play with it, should it not also be reasonable for the parent to expect it? By extention, should not said parents take steps to make sure their child doesn’t get harmed, through some process known as “taking it away?”
It’s called common sense, and I hear it goes for a dime a dozen these days.
This isn’t like another McDonald’s case where the company is deliberately doing something it knows is unsafe. Bandai was in full compliance with all safety regulations. It’s not to say that the recommendations don’t have some merit. But they’re paying because a parent is unable to take responsibility for her actions or lack thereof in raising her child.
I could start drawing parallels to the entertainment industry, but the time would fail me.
Is this the kind of generation we’re raising? Each generation has become successively more hands-off in raising their children. I suppose in a weird way that makes sense because as adolescents we believe any modicum of control issued by our parents is to our deficit, regardless of what reasoning they might have for it. I hear it all the time; teenagers say they would never treat their children “that way.” Well I’ll tell you right now, either you’ll do it or you’ll have a dead child on your hands. Morbid, but QED nevertheless.
I’m drawing close to a slippery slope argument, but what’s next? People, wake up and take charge of your actions! I have neither the time, nor the patience, nor the ability to fix stupidity of the highest caliber.
I open the floor to you. How do you think this should have been handled? Keep it civil though.
Practically anything can be considered a dangerous item for children, and I find it ridiculous companies even have to add in a disclaimer for such things. I mean, if you need a warning label to tell you not to let your kid put a plastic bag around his/her head, then you plain don’t deserve to procreate.
Every year, a handful of people die from mochi. Why don’t mochi makers get sued? I am sorry for the family’s misfortune but I don’t see how Bandai is at fault here.
lol i totally agree with you
parents these days need to get their heads slammed into the wall in hopes that their brain starts working. UGH children. I bet that family will try to kill that child cause in Japan instead of dealing with problems they try to eradicate them.
You can’t fix stupid. But you can take stupid and use it as a club to beat money out of corporations.
Yet you don’t like how overprotective my folks are. xD
There’s a lot I can say, but I’ll go this route. Although you don’t know for sure it’s parents stupidity, it may be older siblings stupidity, and well, parents can’t watch their kids 24/7.
I don’t think that means it’s Bandai’s fault my own means. But they’ll get the money if that toy didn’t have a warning labal on it. Long story short, protect yourself legally, or it’s your own damn fault. They may have been stupid, but you were just as stupid to leave yourself open for that.
Well, protection does have a point where it goes over the top. To continue the example (though it becomes quite silly in the extension), it’s stupid to let a 2 year old play with the capsule because they might choke on it, but it’s equally stupid to take it away from a 16 year old because they “might” choke on it.
With world war 3.
No humans, no problems.
Because no one likes the other option.
well… to be honest. i wouldn’t let a little three year od nephew of mine in my own room precisely because of this reason. i collect those little figurines you get in random boxes and those little plastic capsules. more often than not, they come with little props. while i know that a three year old would put anything one their mouths, i just don’t want him to touch it. period. i think the parents of that little boy should have used their better judgment and know if a toy is appropriate for their little boy.
(it’s like one of those stupid merchandise cases in america where they say that ‘i didn’t know if was not allowed because it’s not in the label.’ i think it’s just a justification of their lack of common sense.) in my country anyway, those kinds of merchandise are not really marketed to small children but to pre-teen and teenage and (like me) otaku in their 20s and 30s. though it is regretable what happened to that child, i think them winning that case will only justify the parents’ lack of common sense… or as you mentioned, stupidity.