If your children like Bratz please read this....

[TooTicky]

this

Worryingly, it is not just Bratz. I believe 98% of toys are made using child labour or very unfair working conditions.

I think the majority of toys made in China are produced unethically. Yes, ideally, everybody should stop buying them.

Thank you TooTicky, our playmobil firemen and construction workers can rest easy with a clear conscience then. Hope same applies to Lego.

Have to say I don't really buy Chinese stuff, partly as ds doesn't really go for the "character" toys like that (thank goodness). Also, would prefer to buy stuff which is ethically sound if possible.

This is long but well worth reading about Chinese working conditions.

another bump for those who haven't seen it

Two christmases ago, I was looking at all the presents my DDs had received when I began to notice that each one was made in China. That prompted me to check the origins of each and every present they had got, and all but one or two had been made in China. Books, clothes, toys (both tacky-type of toys and solid-looking traditional types). How on earth do we avoid it? Is there a company that only trades ethically produced goods of a wide variety? I know of the odd company like American Apparel which only produces locally-made non-sweatshop clothing, but what about all the other products we buy? Toys, books, household goods? It's a bit unfair to single out Bratz, just because you don't like the dolls when cheap labour is used to produce just about everything.

I give my dd 10 p for every plastic thing she sees that is NOT made in China...

Seriously though it's really tough to find ethical toys that kids still want.

I'm only starting with Bratz. Have you seen my Barbie/HotWheels/Fisher-Price thread?
And, is it really okay to buy things made by exploited people, thereby giving money to the exploiters, just because our children want them?

I hate the bratz dolls but dd has 4 and i cant take them off her as someone else has bought them for Birthdays. They are kept in a shoe box under her bed and she rarely plays with them. she likes drawing.
I defo would not buy them for someone else child let alone my own. they are vile, especially the large head ones that you put make up on.

i hate bratz too, they encourage tarty fashion. a lot of palstic toys are \mde in china, Mc Donald's Happy Meals toys are a result of child labour too

This doesn't surprise me at all. I'm sure that clothes made for supermarkets and places like Matalan and Primark are made by slave labour, how else could they sell them so cheaply?

Not just the cheapy shops, Gap is one of the worst. And Disney are awful!

Of course I am not advocating buying this stuff just because children want it - quite the contrary. I would genuinely like to know of any companies known for their ethical trading. Green/ethical clothing manufacturers are easy enough to find, but how about other goods? We need to know who trades ethically so we can buy their products instead of mass-produced, labour-exploited tat. Unfortunately, Pandoras box is already open, so there will always be a very strong market for stuff so long as it is cheap, regardless of the reasons why it is cheap in the first place. Nobody needs as much stuff as people seem to accumulate nowadays, but it's a hard habit to break.

I think Ethiscore is supposed to be good, although I've not signed up to it. Yet.

There are ethical companies out there but finding them isn't always easy. Ethiscore is a good and reliable system. There really needs to be more awareness about these issues.

What is ethiscore? Are they a company or some kind of agency? How do you find them?

Sorry if I seem to be barraging you with questions!

It is what a knowledgeable friend of mine uses to assess ethicalness (I'm sure that's not a word!). Am off to google now

Ah, here's a report on toy companies here

Thanks for the link. .

I will be passing it on.