Many of the changes in childhood that have occurred in recent years are undermining the quality of many children's play. Many children and parents have busy lives so there is less free time for play out of school. For safety and economic reasons, the neighborhood play culture that existed in many communities is becoming a thing of the past. But of all the factors affecting play today, few have had a more worrisome impact than changes in toys in the past decade or so. Toys have a very big influence on play.
Some toys tend to promote higher quality play than others.
Multi-purpose and unstructured toys, like clay, blocks, generic toy figures and baby dolls, encourage play that children can control and shape to meet their individual needs over time. This phenomenon of media-linked toys arose very dramatically in 1984 when children's television was deregulated by the Federal Communications Commission. Deregulation made it legal to market toys to children through TV programs for the first time. Almost immediately, and ever since, whole toy lines of realistic replicas of what children see on the screen have appeared. Television shows, and increasingly movies too, are made to sell toys and other products to children.