"These bouncy balls are all drawn by children, he draws a small one, and he wants a big one, what is the difference between this and gambling in disguise?" Li Li, who lives in the Tiancheng County Government Community in the urban area, said depressedly with some bouncy balls.
The reporter found that toys such as "Dragon Ball", tape balls, ultraman cards and other toys are very popular among children. Some children are even obsessed to the point of "not letting go" of eating, sleeping, and going to class.
Spend money to win the "Dragon Ball" lottery
On November 20, Li Li discovered that her son Haoxuan, a third-grader, often brought back colorful bouncy balls after school. This bouncy ball is called "Dragon Ball" by Haoxuan.
Li Li inquired and learned that these "Dragon Balls" were obtained by Haoxuan in a lottery.
In the days that followed, Li Li discovered that her son Haoxuan was a bit addicted to the "Dragon Ball" lottery and often asked her for pocket money to go to the lottery.
Especially in the past two days, Haoxuan has been a bit "obsessed" to the point of not thinking about tea and dinner, thinking about going to the lottery every day. Once, he also secretly asked his father for 10 yuan to go to the lottery.
In order to find out what kind of game the lottery "Dragon Ball" is, Li Li follows Haoxuan to the commissary near the school.
Li Li saw that as soon as the commissary entered the door, there was a large paper box. The box has a colored bouncy ball with a label on it. At the same time, there are corresponding numerical designations under these colored bouncy balls. From no. 1 to No. 60, the size of the bouncy ball is also arranged from largest to smallest.
Many students carrying school bags are crowding around the commissary owner to draw cards and 5 dimes at a time.
The cards are written with different numbers, corresponding to bouncy balls of different sizes. Among them, the No. 1 bouncy ball is the largest, and the size of the subsequent ones is getting smaller and smaller.
Li Li saw that the students paid money to draw the lottery, and even more directly took out 10 yuan to draw the lottery.
Some children draw no. 4, and the friends around them cheer, and he gets a relatively large bouncy ball; the student who draws no. 42 is a little frustrated, and he gets a small bouncy ball.
Some children smoked 5 times in a row and got 5 bouncy balls of different sizes. But he did not give up, but also to continue the lottery, and soon he spent 5 yuan.
Li Li asked friends around her, and many children were also addicted to the game of "Dragon Ball" in the lottery. There is a child who spends more than 50 yuan a week in order to get a bigger "Dragon Ball".
Li Li can't help but worry that these lottery games are quite attractive to children, and whether they have a disguised gambling nature. "The children's self-control is not good, and it is really not right to use the psychology of the children who want to get bigger balls to make a profit." Li Li said.
Play with tape balls until your hands are swollen
"One tear, one stick, one roll", just three steps, you can harvest a tape ball.
In recent days, Liu Yapei, who is in the third grade of primary school, has become addicted to this kind of tape ball. Every day, in addition to eating and sleeping, I am constantly rolling up.
Liu Yapei first saw other students playing this tape ball in the dance interest class, and at that time, she pestered her mother Zhang Ying to buy it for her. The children said that the tape ball was a stress relief artifact, and it was sold at a stationery store near the school.
So Zhang Ying spent 7 yuan at the stationery store to buy two rolls of tape balls for her daughter. The owner of the stationery store said that recently, the tape balls have been selling very hot, and only some inventory is left in the store. Tape balls are divided into different prices according to the quality and the difficulty of the sticky balls, most of which range from 3 yuan to 7 yuan.
At the stationery store, Zhang Ying also met two elementary school students to buy tape balls.
The two primary school students told Zhang Ying that they used the small ball to tear off the adhesive on the tape, and constantly wrapped the small ball with adhesive, the ball was getting bigger and bigger, and the process of playing with the tape ball made them feel very interesting.
After the tape ball was taken home, Liu Yapei immediately played with it. It wasn't until Zhang Ying told her to eat that she reluctantly put it down.
Liu Yapei also told his mother that he also secretly played with tape balls at the same table, so that the teacher could see that it was confiscated.
After playing with two rolls of tape balls, Liu Yapei pestered her mother to buy a wide package of macaron-colored tape balls from the Internet, and she said that she wanted to compete with her classmates to see who rolled the balls.
Seeing her daughter constantly busy in her hands, the mother felt incomprehensible: how attractive is a small tape ball that can make the child so fascinated?
One day, Liu Yapei felt that his fingers were larger than usual, and there was still a little pain, so he asked his mother for help.
Zhang Ying looked at the child's fingers, some redness and swelling, associated with the child has been playing with tape balls these days, Zhang Ying felt that it was the culprit.
She hurried to the community clinic downstairs with her child. The doctor examined the child's fingers and the tape ball and said that the adhesive part of the tape ball was made of synthetic rubber. Your child's fingers may be red and swollen from excessive exposure to the substance.
Ultraman cards are addictive to play
"Mom, just buy me two packs of Ultraman cards..." 7-year-old Jiayuan pleaded with her mother Rodin.
Looking at Jiayuan's eager gaze, Rodin wanted to lose his temper and held back, it was not known how many times he had bought Ultraman cards for his children.
This time, Jiayuan bought two packs of 5 yuan cards. Just after paying the money, before he could get out of the supermarket, he couldn't wait to open a bag and look at it carefully. After reading a few cards, Jiayuan showed a disappointed expression on his face and murmured, "Why don't you have the rare cards I want?" Then he opened another bag.
Since last year, Jiayuan saw that there were children playing Ultraman cards together and wanted to play, so she asked her mother to buy them. In the supermarket, Ultraman cards are 1 yuan, 2 yuan, 5 yuan, 10 yuan or even hundreds of yuan. The form of selling cards is like a blind box, and each pack of cards, before being opened, no one knows whether there are rare cards inside.
A supermarket owner told Rodin that the card bags of 1 yuan and 2 yuan are basically ordinary cards, and if you want to increase the probability of drawing rare cards, you have to buy a card box of 5 yuan, 10 yuan or even hundreds of yuan.
Rodin said that this kind of small card has a great temptation for children, one is to design rare cards for children to collect, and the other is to open each package is the same as "winning the lottery". The more they can't win the lottery, the more the children have to buy it. This act of setting up rare cards also caused comparisons between children.
At first, Rodin bought a few packs of 1 yuan for the child, and all he got were ordinary cards, but when Jiayuan took it out to play with other children, he was ridiculed, saying that his level was not high. In order to buy a high-level card, every time Jiayuan will let his mother buy him 5 yuan or a higher price.
Jiayuan held those high-level cards like a baby, and would look through them as long as he had time, and he remembered the names of various Ultramans better than the text.
Rodin had thought that Jiayuan would lose interest in playing cards for a while, who knew that almost a year later, he was still happy to collect them. According to Jiayuan, the children are playing, and as soon as they have time, they have more rare cards than those who collect.
By now, Rodin had spent hundreds of dollars on cards for his children. Rodin said: "Don't let children play cards, many children are playing, cards have become a common topic for them. Let him continue to play, and I worry that he is getting more and more addictive, which is really a headache. ”
Stationery shop Mo change toy store
The reporter visited several stationery stores near primary schools in the city and found that in addition to a variety of stationery, toys such as tape balls, crystal clay, "dragon balls" drawn by lottery, and Ultraman cards were placed in a conspicuous position in the stationery store, attracting primary school students to come and buy.
At a stationery store, two elementary school students are picking out tape balls. These gels have yellow red blue pink and are very bright in color. While they were choosing, they also discussed, "This kind of tape is not easy to use, it is not easy to glue." The kind of spraying alcohol has a better gelling effect. ”
A businessman told reporters that the things children play now have many variations. Sometimes students have to buy something he hasn't seen before, describing it for half a day without even knowing what it is. Every time he heard a new toy from the children's mouth, he hurried to inquire and buy goods, afraid that he would be one step later than other merchants.
In the interview, the businessman told reporters that he has been opening a store near the school for 4 years. In the past few years, he has found that what children like to play is to follow the trend, some are toys derived from some cartoons, such as finger tops, Ultraman cards, star drill blocks, etc.; some are toys recommended by short video bloggers, such as tape balls and crystal clay... When a novel toy appears in the store, it immediately attracts the attention of small customers. Some toys are also a craze, and the popularity will disappear in a few months; some toys will last for a long time and have always been loved by children.
The merchant admitted that the price of toys sold in the stationery store near the school will not be too high, mostly small toys of a few yuan and ten yuan, compared to the toys of hundreds of yuan in the mall, parents are more willing to pay money to buy a child. So, it's easy to blow up a toy craze.
Parent Li Li said that the stationery shops around the campus have become toy stores, which cannot but make people worry. Children themselves have no ability to identify fakes and dangerous toys, and they lack the ability to resist toys with the nature of "lottery". Merchants should operate in accordance with the law, strengthen safety awareness, and do not sell dangerous toys that endanger minors. In addition to educating their children, parents should put safety in the first place when buying toys for their children. At the same time, it is hoped that the relevant departments will strengthen supervision, standardize the sales of children's toys, and create a good learning environment for children.
(Reporters Wu Yan, Qi Xiaojuan, Li Xiaoxian, photo report)