A parent in Liaoning recently discovered a sharp blade hidden inside the pen their child was using, which could easily pierce a can. These types of “concealed blade stationery” that have been exposed and regulated multiple times, have once again made their way into schools. Some media outlets have questioned why these “deadly stationery” items continue to persist.
The parent posted a video on a social media platform, stating that the ballpoint pen looked similar to regular stationery on the outside, but contained a sharp blade inside, making it significantly aggressive. After conducting a search on various e-commerce platforms, he found that these “concealed blade ballpoint pens” were priced inexpensively, had a very low purchase threshold, strong concealment, and were easily carried into school by students.
These stationery items designed to mimic “hidden weapons,” if out of control during a child’s play or misuse, could potentially cause serious harm, posing a significant safety risk once they enter schools. Some parents also questioned how such products could be designed, manufactured, and sold on the market for an extended period.
In fact, the issue of “blades hidden in pens” is not new. As early as 2022 and 2023, parents and teachers in various places had discovered similar stationery items and exposed them online, sparking public attention. The relevant suppliers at that time revealed that these products had nearly 20 years of production history, and some merchants on sales pages used keywords like “self-defense” and “anti-wolf” to blur their dangerous nature, openly guiding purchases.
In response to this issue, the market supervision department had previously seized, removed, and dealt with a batch of problematic products. However, three years later, these concealed blade ballpoint pens still have not disappeared, and can still be easily found on some e-commerce platforms, with individual product sales even reaching hundreds.
Some commentators believe that for products with such obvious safety hazards, why do they continue to persist? Who is the mastermind behind these “deadly stationery” items? Selling such dangerous items to children, doesn’t their conscience ache?
Disguising blades as stationery, even if they may not meet the legal standards for “controlled knives,” is absolutely unacceptable to exist on school campuses. Campus safety cannot tolerate any negligence or luck; if every cleanup is just temporary, allowing dangerous stationery items to resurface time and time again, then who will protect the safety of the children?
To eliminate safety hazards, crack down on substandard products, it should not take just one exposure to take action; there should be a normal and strict supervision from the source of production to the end of sales. As for these “dangerous stationery” items that operate in a gray area, the standards should be stricter, the definitions clearer, and the penalties more robust.