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The Campaign for a Commerical-Free Childhood (CCFC) is an organization that calls attention to the practice of marketing to children. Some issues they highlight are the sexualization of children, materialism and the decrease in creative play that some toys and television shows promote. 

This year, CCFC decided to counter the Toy Industry Association's Toy of The Year (TOTY) Award with their own version, the TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young children) Award. Multiple toys were nominated including Hasbro's Baby Alive Learns to Potty, Mattel's Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Barbie, Fisher-Price's Smart Cycle, and Warner Bros. Lego Batman video game.

 According to Josh Golin, Assistant Director of CCFC, toys chosen for the TOADY award were picked based on "troubling trends" of toys that pretend tobe educational, toys that "promote other brands," and toys that "promote violence or sexualized children." The staff at CCFC nominated all the toys during staff meetings. 

The blurb on the TOADY website claims that Lego Batman was marketed topreschoolers despite the ESRB rating of E 10+. Further more, Mr. Gloin explained that Lego Batman was chosen because of the commercialization of Lego and Lego moving away from being a "stand alone toy to inspire creativity to a branding opportunity for other companies." While the company was aware that the game was rated E 10+, the game was tied to a McDonald's Happy Mealtoy, therefore the game was marketed to children younger than the recommended 10+ rating.

While nobody at CCFC had personally played the game, they watched several children play and came to the conclusion that Lego Batman "dispense[d]with hands-on building altogether by turning your toy into a video game so that instead of deciding what to build next, children choose which cyber weapons touse to beat up their opponent."

The ESRB rating system is in place to inform parents and other consumers about the contents of video games. Lego Batman is rated E 10+ for mild cartoon violence. The CCFC mentions that Lego Batman promotes the "violent Dark Knight movie series to preschoolers." Is the ESRB doing its job by informing parents of the ratings?  Or isn't it the parents' job to police what their children are playing? It should be both. So is Lego Batman really a violent video game? Depending on your definition of violence, maybe. The extent of violence in Lego Batman is that your character hits an enemy and the enemy breaks apart into smaller Lego bits. Is this any more destructive than a series that reinforces gender stereotypes like Ubisoft's Imagine series? 

Ubisoft's Imagine series includes titles such as Fashion Designer, Animal Doctor, Babyz, Babysitters, Master Chef, and Figure Skater. Ubisoft states that the line is designed to "offer young girls a line of games that give them the chanceto explore their hobbies and interests." (http://www.ubi.com/US/News/Info.aspx?nId=4662). For example the Imagine Babyz game focuses on raising a virtual baby. Playersare able to take photos and swap tips about child raising. This game reinforcesthe stereotype that girls are supposed to take care of babies.

In conclusion, is Lego Batman deserving of an award that would label it "oppressive and destructive to young children"? No, there are games much more destructive to children. The Ubisoft Imagine series is much more destructive to young children as it reinforces gender stereotypes that are damaging to young girls. Lego Batman is rated for an age group that should be able to handle cartoon violence, not preschoolers. Ubisoft's Imagine series is rated 'E' for all ages. So which is more destructive?

The winner of the TOADY Award for 2008 was Mattel's Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Barbie. Lego Batman received 10% of the vote. For further information on the CCFC, please visit http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org.

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