A University of Auckland professor says letting children - especially young boys - play with toy guns is not especially harmful or likely to predispose them to violence, as long as certain requirements are met by parents.
Sociology lecturer Dr David Mayeda, speaking this morning to TVNZ 1's Breakfast programme, said typically only boys want to play with toy guns, but parents should be careful to let them know it is only a game.
"For children to play with toy weapons - it's quite normal," Dr Mayeda said.
Parents could lessen the impact of toy weaponry by having a conversation with their child clearly identifying the toy weapons as being a game, and by only purchasing items which are clearly and unmistakably toys, such as oversized or brightly-coloured toys.
Dr Mayeda said the root cause of boys wanting to play with guns is their exposure to violence through various media.
This in turn gave them a sense of pressure "to obtain a sense of self esteem through violence".
Playing with toy weapons does not necessarily mean your child will grow up wanting to kill people, he said.
"The statistical probability of someone growing up to be a mass murderer is miniscule," Dr Mayeda said.
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