Warn your grandchildren

Applegran

Its awful that these life changing/life damaging things are for sale and being promoted. Maybe there should be a petition to the government to ban these things? I am not sure about starting a petition - how to give it the best chance of making an impact. Would GN promote such a petition? Or allow us to start a thread telling people about it? If anyone wants to join me in thinking this through please PM me - and also put something on this thread for others to see maybe.

Applegran sent me a PM and I replied:
I searched on Change.org which is where all the petitions go and there seems to be one in the USA from two years ago but it has only 42 signatures!
Change.org USA petition

You can start a petition yourself on Change, the problem is promoting it. You need many thousands of signatures. There is no problem with posting a link to the petition on Gransnet, I have done that before about Smart Motorways. But it will need a lot more than that. Everyone who signs it needs to send it to everyone they know for a start.

chestnut

I have worked in theatre for many years and seen the damage these magnets and batteries do. It's horrendous.
On a side note Professor Kenny is a good friend of mine and a brilliant surgeon.

Like Helen657 says, they've been round quite a long time and similar things happened in the past

Grannyqueenie, excellent advice.

I remember being warned about eating certain berries as a child. How things have progressed, and not in a good way.

This ridiculous and dangerous 'game/dare' is found on TikTok - which is only supposed to be accessed by children over 13. Why are younger children using this site, parents must take the responsibility of enforcing these sign-up rules. I also feel TicTok should immediately police the site to remove dangerous articles bought to its attention.

Its awful that these life changing/life damaging things are for sale and being promoted. Maybe there should be a petition to the government to ban these things? I am not sure about starting a petition - how to give it the best chance of making an impact. Would GN promote such a petition? Or allow us to start a thread telling people about it? If anyone wants to join me in thinking this through please PM me - and also put something on this thread for others to see maybe.

I can remember my children having a magnetic sticks/balls building set 20+ years ago when they were about 5 & 7, I’m absolutely horrified about the damage they could have caused but at the time thought it was great and loved linking the bits together myself to make shapes.
Definitely something to avoid for small children, the damage caused can be catastrophic

I’m glad to see that button batteries now come in those almost impenetrable protective plastic covers

oh and never let children clamber underneath riser/recliner chairs, or play on them.
there have been crush injuries.

And for any grandparents using hearing aids, be very careful in disposing of used batteries and where you store new ones too. They’re so tiny and are really hard to find if one is accidentally dropped around the house.

the laundry detergent gel pods, look like giant jelly sweets,
also cause many injuries.

Blossoming the world has gone crazy with all the stupid things being made just for people to make money. No-one needs these things but good marketing persuades them that they do.

Oh my word! I just had a quick look on Amazon and these things are being promoted as educational, STEM toys for children as young as 3! I wouldn’t even give them Lego at that age!

Where is common sense?

It obviously sounds dangerous.

sodapop it says there have been 65 children admitted for urgent surgery in the last three years, and the ongoing consequences are terrifying. Absolutely heartbreaking that children have to go through such suffering for something so trivial and unnecessary.

Dreadful damage from such small objects. That's the second incident involving children swallowing magnets that I have read about recently.
Must be so difficult for parents to monitor the information from the Internet and keeping their children safe.

i've seen a mother actually give her small child a used battery that he was reaching for in a supermarket.
i had to intervene.
she had no idea of the danger. seemed she always acquiesced in what he demanded.
she put it back at my bidding, but doubt she really understood the issue.

Sadly children have no idea of the dangers unless they are warned in no uncertain terms. You cannot watch them 24 hours a day and it only takes a moment to put something in their mouth when they're trying to impress someone or look cool.

I've seen this trend recently and have been called sanctimonious for commenting on it but 2 ingested magnets can cause the same damage as a gunshot.

Also the tiny batteries that come in toys like hexbugs are extremely dangerous swallowed

I read this too as it has happened to a wee boy local to me and he is very ill indeed after life changing operations. Please confiscate these magnets if you come across them.