Most of the time when kids are picked on and made fun of, they hide from the world and turn to television shows or video games, like we did. After some kids called us nerds in the second grade and we spent the next three months in our bedrooms playing Metroid. But what happens when your software starts taking cracks because you’re not athletically gifted or dweeby or a little on the stout side? Well, if you’re the parents of a little girl in Europe then you get pretty pissed.
A report in the U.K. paper Daily Mail highlighted an incident in which a 10-year-old girl was told by the Wii Fit software that she’s “fat.” The girl was very upset to be told that and the parents were none too pleased.
“She is a perfectly healthy, 4ft 9in tall 10-year-old who swims, dances and weighs only six stone,” said the father. “She is solidly built but not fat. She was devastated to be called fat and we had to work hard to convince her she isn’t. I know it is just a game but we already have to worry about young girls starving themselves to look like magazine models and now we have a game that tells them they’re fat. This to me is very worrying.”
It’s apparently worrying to Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum as well. In Wii Fit after a player enters his/her height, the software uses BMI to measure body fat based on an adult’s height and weight. Fry, however, thinks the measurement is misleading and he’d like to see children banned from playing the game.
“I’m absolutely aghast that children are being told they are fat,” he said. “BMI is far from perfect but with children it simply should not be used. A child’s BMI can change every month and it is perfectly possible for a child to be stocky, yet still very fit. I would be very concerned if children were using this game and I believe it should carry a warning for parents.”
Kinda hypocritical of Nintendo to be calling little kids fat if you ask us. After all, the face of your corporation is a prime candidate for Slim Fast.
Links:
[GameDaily.com]: Nintendo Apologizes for Wii Fit Calling Little Girl `Fat’
[Mail Online]: Obesity experts condemn Nintendo’s Wii `Fit’ game after it tells 10-year-old girl she’s fat