It's No Longer Play Time

Parents, indie horror game Poppy Playtime isn't exactly to blame for children getting traumatized. Not entirely, anyway. At first glance the characters appear to be sweet, plushie style toys directed at little children, but in reality, its rating recommends that children under 12 should steer clear.

For parents who don't know, the merchandise associated with the game is supposed to be scary as the premise of the game is that the player receives a cryptic message from a toy studio whose employees have all mysteriously vanished. The player arrives at the empty, devastated studio only to be harassed and chased by monster versions of the original children's toy designs. Of course, these versions of the toys have been warped to have crazed facial expressions and/or a mouth full of fangs. Yes, there are puzzles and the death scenes aren't that graphic (it's not like a Mortal Combat finishing move, you don't even really see "what happens" in on screen death scenes), but they're still there and can be jarring depending on which character gets you and how bad the jump scare prior was.

For parents who know exactly what they're getting into, beware of fake merchandise. The studio that created the game has also been creating their own content and unless purchased through them, you're probably buying fake merchandise. The studio has taken all of the appropriate legal action, but the fakes are popping up so quickly and in such a large abundance it's difficult to catch and disband them all.

Anyway, if you're an unsuspecting parent, pay attention to the media your child consumes, especially on websites with child controls like YouTube. Apparently, even the YouTube algorithm has had trouble making sure that Poppy Playtime videos don't make their way to little kids who aren't quite old enough to consume that sort of media. Part of the reason for this issue is that it's easy for YouTubers to splice in footage from actual children's media to make a comparison of what they thought Poppy Playtime was going to be to showing actual game footage, which is the exact opposite of Sesame Street or Peppa Pig. YouTube has since attempted to scrub its kid's content such that Poppy Playtime videos don't show up on children's vertical and YouTube Kids. In addition, parents can turn off the autoplay feature so that once a show or video is over, the media doesn't continue to play. According to YouTube, there are some creators who are out there wanting to just "scare little kids" and claim that these content creators are the reason that Poppy Playtime videos are still sneaking past their controls for content for children. Which just goes to show that some people really aren't paying attention to the media their children consume and the price to pay in this case is Poppy Playtime inspired nightmares.

In short, please pay attention to the media your child consumes because child controls are not foolproof and when it comes to the internet, the responsible party is the adult.

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