Popular plastic toy knives shaped like radishes raise safety concerns

The popularity of a radish-shaped toy knife among primary school students raised safety concerns, reported a local news outlet called Shunwang in Jinan, Shandong province.

The toy knife is a colorful plastic toy resembling a radish, and it achieves knife-like movements through its own gravity, hence it is also called a "gravity radish knife".

The radish knife is made of plastic, but the tip of the blade is relatively hard. It may cause slight pain when pushed against the skin and can easily pierce an apple. In addition, sellers are offering metal radish knife toys on online shopping platforms, Liuzhou Nightly News reported.

In stationery stores, the toy knife comes in various colors and sizes, with prices ranging from 5 to 25 yuan ($0.6 to $3.4). A stationery clerk said it is quite popular among primary school students and nearly everyone has one.

Apart from appearing in physical shops, it's also a hot-sale product on e-commerce platforms. Multiple online stores show that their sales surpassed 400,000.

Parents are confused about its popularity. "My daughter brought one home yesterday. She told me that it helps her to relieve stress," an anonymous parent told Shunwang.

"Playing with a toy knife may have certain psychological effects on children," said Yang Sifan, deputy dean of the School of Education Sciences at Chongqing Normal University.

He added that children enjoy imitating scenes from movies and TV shows by playing with toy knives and toy guns. Among these actions, pretending to stab, poke, or jab with a toy knife may potentially trigger a subconscious violent tendency in children. Parents and teachers should supervise children when playing with toys like radish knives and not to allow them to bring such toys to school.