From vnunet.com 21/05/08:
"Nintendo has admitted that its Wii Fit game may not be suitable for children as its calculations of body mass index are designed for adults.
A row erupted after 11 year-old Tabea Paul was told by the game that she was overweight.
The girl's parents were angered by the suggestion, and have said that the game could have given the child an eating disorder."
What I loved, though, was the response to this story in an email from vnunet.com weekly news report:
"An offhand prediction based on a very 'rule-of-thumb' calculation would not cause an eating disorder in a young girl unless she already had a range of much more deep seated psychological issues, probably brought on by years of smothering by over-protective parents.
That the game might have been wrong in this case is secondary. In any person's life they are going to be confronted by things they don't like and sometimes they aren't going to be true. That's life and people really need to learn to deal with it."
Amen to that.
No comments:
Post a Comment