Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Recommendation #17, Section VI (2013)

Text of the recommendation

Marketing and commercialization of play: The Committee is concerned that many children and their families are exposed to increasing levels of unregulated commercialization and marketing by toy and game manufacturers. Parents are pressured to purchase a growing number of products which may be harmful to their children’s development or are antithetical to creative play, such as products that promote television programmes with established characters and storylines which impede imaginative exploration; toys with microchips which render the child as a passive observer; kits with a pre-determined pattern of activity; toys that promote traditional gender stereotypes or early sexualization of girls; toys containing dangerous parts or chemicals; realistic war toys and games. Global marketing can also serve to weaken children’s participation in the traditional cultural and artistic life of their community.