"PLAYTIME'S OVER: Chilling truth behind YOUR kids’ favourite toys – as traumatised workers in ‘nightmare’ factories leap to their deaths" 21 April 2025

A non-profit organisation investigating Chinese toy factories told The Sun parents are unaware of the ‘terrible’ working conditions of those producing their children’s adored toys.

Today, workers continue to toil in terrible working conditions, working long hours, earning low wages, experiencing bullying and are exposed to hazardous substances with a lack of protective equipment,” said China Labor Watch (CLW), [...]

Women workers, who generally make up the majority of workers in toy factories, face sexual harassment, including inappropriate remarks and sexualised stares and comments from male workers.

Toy giants, including Mattel - the firm behind Barbie and Fisher-Price toys - and Hasbro, who make Nerf guns and Transformers - source a hefty proportion of their products from China.

Just last year, investigators posing as workers at Chang'An Mattel - a factory in Guangdong province, which produces Barbie dolls for Mattel - uncovered shocking "rights violations".

The manager had allegedly scolded the victim for being too old and working too slowly.

At Chang'An Mattel, women were found to be targets of sexual harassment by male colleagues in workplace chat groups - something that was, worryingly, “commonplace”.

ActionAid France said photos of women working in the factory were being shared, without consent, on social media. [...]

[...] CLW said in its report: “The findings of this investigation suggest that the promise of emancipation and feminist empowerment in the Barbie movie rings hollow.”

Workers claimed to have accumulated up to 110 hours of overtime per month - a violation of Chinese labour laws, which permit up to 36 hours a month, according to the report.

[...] China Labour Watch told The Sun: “While major toy companies have established supplier codes of conduct, CLW's investigations into their supplier factories show a disregard of these standards."

The Sun has contacted Mattel, Hasbro, Disney, the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI), and the Toy Retailers Association for comment.