Wii Fit to pre-teen: You're fat

Wed May 21, 2008 11:21AM EDT

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In a world of glossy magazines showing us rail thin models who subsist on a diet of lettuce and vodka, do we really need video games telling impressionable young children that they're fat?

Nintendo is being lambasted over its hot new Wii Fit "balance board," which has labeled a 10-year-old-girl as "fat" according to its expert analysis. The UK girl, reportedly 4 feet, 9 inches tall, weighs six stone, or about 84 pounds, according to her stepfather. If those figures are true, that would give her a Body Mass Index of a mere 18.2, which actually falls into the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's "underweight" category (though I suspect the real figures are a little different). The worry isn't that she's unhealthy but rather that the device has given her an incorrect and damaging opinion of her health and self-image, one that her parents will now have to work double-time to correct.

At least one group, the UK's National Obesity Forum, is calling for the game to be banned from being marketed to children, saying that BMI "should simply not be used" for growing kids whose bodies are rapidly changing from day to day.

Nintendo has apologized, mainly for using the term "fat" in the game, but says it stands by the BMI measurement, saying only that it "may not be entirely accurate for younger age groups." The company says it will not add a warning of any kind to the device, however. Presumably, it's not going to come up with another word for "fat," either.

POLL: What should Nintendo do? 

Comments on Wii Fit to pre-teen: You're fat

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  • 1 Posted by cuplacaiazzas on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:32PM EDT Report Abuse

    There are a couple things to remember here. First is that the Nintendo is a computer that is telling you this information, so it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Second, Wii fit is not some pre-teen magazine telling girls they need to look like a model. It is trying to get people to become healthy in an age where being healty is not mainstream. A magizine is not the same thing. C'mon people, use your head when you are using something like the Wii Fit.

  • 2 Posted by theloserchronicles on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    It's a good thing people like me are capable of recognizing the influence of the media in today's society and can steer aware from becoming a victim of marketing. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to some music on my Ipod while I drink a Pepsi and watch some television on my new Sony HDTV Flat screen...

  • 3 Posted by m_knopp on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:32PM EDT Report Abuse

    So let me see if I understand this. A national obesity forum is trying to get a video game which encourages something other then sitting on the couch and pushing buttons banned because it might hurt some kid's self esteem? That is the dumbest thing that I have ever heard. The Wii Fit might have prevented thousands of weight related issues in some people, but because it uses the word fat we need to ban it. Because obviously it is better to have good self-esteem (as defined by external factors like computers) and be fat then to be healthy with a self-esteem that you perhaps built internally through hard work.

  • 4 Posted by nolo_8 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:40PM EDT Report Abuse

    Oh gee, here come the PC people causing an uproar over nothing. I guess you can't call ANYONE fat these days.

  • 5 Posted by supertongue_comics on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    Funny story. Really, who would actually take "comments" from this game seriously? Sure, it does help you become "fit," but it is first a video game, not a gym. She needs to deal with it or she'll be in for some trouble when she gets into high school. If this girl takes this seriously, then she'll be anorexic in a few months after she reads some teen magazines today...

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