Recently, social media here in Laguna (and in the entire Philippines, for that matter) were filled with discussion about a toy that’s becoming the rage among youngsters: “lato-lato,” or clacker balls.
Clacker balls (for those who, like me, can’t be bothered to be updated about the latest trends in social media) are two balls held together to a “finger tab” by a string. The player holds the tab with the balls hanging below and then moves his hand up and down to the two balls swing apart and back together, making a clacking noise.
When I said earlier that “lato-lato” has become the rage among Filipinos, I mean it in both the figurative and literal sense of the word.
While youngsters nowadays parade around the streets swinging their hands rapidly with “lato-lato,” some netizens are becoming outraged not only due to the irritating clacking noise the toys make but also out of concerns that the swinging balls might inadvertently cause injuries to players or to people around them, especially if they come off due to too much shaking.
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Clacker balls, in fact, had long been a source of controversy since they were introduced sometime in the 1960’s. In fact, they were classed as a “mechanical hazard” in the United States and Canada due to reports of being injured while playing with them.
That was true especially in the 1960’s, when the balls were manufactured using glass or fragile plastic that would eventually shatter, sending glass shards flying around. As a result, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) set new standards for manufacturing the toy, and it was taken off the market in 1985.
In Egypt, the controversy surrounding the toy became political after the public began calling them “Sisi's balls” – an unflattering reference to their authoritarian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Around 41 toy store owners were arrested and 1,403 clackers were confiscated by Egyptian authorities in 2017, according to news reports.
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For me, personally, I believe this rage about “lato-lato” boils down to a simple question: when do adults cross the line from being “protective” to “over-protective” to children?
It’s another of those “divides” that had continue to generate discussion in our social media spaces, between parents who would all but put their kids in a plastic bubble to protect them from the harm of the outside world. Parents who would say, let kids enjoy their childhood – sure, they may get dirtied up or even injured, but it’s all part of their “growing-up” process, right?
Yes, I believe the use of clackers by children should not only be closely supervised by adults, but outright ban them? Especially when even some adults have found them an effective “stress-reliever?”
I believe that move would be, er, “over-reacting” to a trend that, in my view, would probably fade in a few months or so. Trust me, in a few months, with the rapid pace of social media, we would all say, “Lato-lato? What’s that now?”