A children’s toy called “lato-lato” went from becoming a social media trend to a cause of injury.
People playing “lato-lato” or clackers in English are seen all over social media platforms and on the streets in the past few weeks.
Players compete on who can swing the balls on the string the longest.
Comprising of merely two balls tied to a string, the set of clackers was once a favorite among children years ago because of its clacking sounds, hence the name.
Years later, social media users revived the childhood hobby.
The “lato-lato” game even became a fun challenge on TikTok.
This trend resembles the popularity of fidget spinners and other similar devices in the past years.
What people did not expect, however, was that the toy can pose harm to players.
Risks of overplaying
A six-year-old boy from Caloocan City sustained bruises on his arms due to playing with toy clackers over time.
The balls of the clackers hit the boy’s arms each time he swung them up and down, thus causing the injuries.
The boy’s mother named Jessa Mae was the one who gave the toy clackers to him as a gift.
Her son came to love playing with it.
Soon, however, she saw the bruises on both his arms. It was only then that she realized that the balls can be painful if swung for a long period of time.
This incident was featured in an episode of GMA’s “Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho” on June 4.
Here, Jessa Mae recalled that she covered her son’s arms with cardboard boxes to hopefully cushion the pain.
The black marks, eventually, worsened and got better.
The mother later decided on getting rid of the toy clacker.
“Di porket uso is makiki-ride tayo. Maging mapanuri sa lahat ng mga bagay na ibibigay natin sa bata,” she was quoted in the episode as saying.
Where it originated from
A report about this trend in Borneo Bulletin, a publication based in Brunei, attributed the toy clackers’ resurgence in popularity from online users in Indonesia.
“The name lato-lato is said to have been derived from the Bugis word ‘latto-latto’ which translates to ‘making clacking sounds,’” the report said.
The toy itself, meanwhile, originated in the United States.
According to the report, the clackers were also originally dangerous.
Clackers made between the 1960s and 1970s were made of tempered glass or acrylic, thus making the balls fragile and dangerous when used.
The toys were eventually considered hazardous to children at that time.
“As more and more children got hurt from playing with clackers, the US Food and Drug Administration established new safety standards for manufacturers. As a result, clackers were pulled from American shelves,” the report reads.
The toy clackers at present seemed to be made of more durable materials.
Despite the safety risks, toy clackers are still a source of entertainment among children and even the elderly in the Philippines.
Toy clackers can also be purchased in different places—in busy streets and on any shopping platform.