UK Government targets gaming industry for anti-obesity program
by Griffin McElroy 
{ Jan 27th 2008 at 6:30PM }
No, ever-vigilant commenters, this is not a double post -- just further proof that the rest of the civilized world thinks that gamers are a bunch of Cheeto dust-coated fatties. As part of the UK Department of Health's £372 million action plan to reduce obesity, the UK government will work with the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association to make sure that game companies continue to create parental controls on how much time their offspring can spend playing video games, watching TV, or surfing The Innernette.
We're sure this will be very effective in lowering your nation's total weight -- if not, you could always invent some sort of national monthly sandwich allotment to try to curb overeating; or maybe require all comfortable armchairs to deliver powerful electrical jolts into anyone who has been sitting for longer than twenty minutes. Yeah, that sounds great.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hyams @ Jan 27th 2008 6:41PM
Replace Religious Education lessons with sessions dedicated to playing on the Wii.
Shockgamer @ Jan 27th 2008 6:53PM
If a kid has his mind set on not going outside, taking away videogames, TV and internet aren't going to change a thing. Just more time to practice his Garfield sleeping skills.
Dan @ Jan 27th 2008 7:09PM
I just joined my local gym, I am vegetarian and I don't eat any junk food.
Hooray for stereotypes.
LaughingTarget @ Jan 27th 2008 7:11PM
You should add fish to the diet. Fish eaters live slightly longer and have a fewer health problems than even vegetarians.
Cal @ Jan 27th 2008 7:46PM
Most vegetarians eat fish...
TWIMTBP @ Jan 27th 2008 10:03PM
I can run 4 miles non-stop, play soccer regularly, am a UT-Austin engineering grad school alumnus, and have been game-crazy all my life. In other words, I'm neither fat, dumb, or academically challenged, and yet I'm a gamer.
Some people just need scapegoats to blame their shortcomings on. It's all about a magic word called "BALANCE", and responsible parents.
Dan @ Jan 27th 2008 10:06PM
"Most vegetarians eat fish..."
Unless they take 9th grade biology wherein they would be tought fish are animals.
T3H WICKERMAN (TMNT DF) (BWF) @ Jan 28th 2008 12:18AM
Hey phatty boom boom!!!
Donald @ Jan 27th 2008 6:59PM
...
::facepalm::
Andykapped @ Jan 27th 2008 7:05PM
All most all the people inn government are just as fat. they need to create a program for senate
Ranko @ Jan 27th 2008 7:06PM
I love how one of the tags is "Fatties".
LaughingTarget @ Jan 27th 2008 7:10PM
They'd need to create a broad, sweeping change of cultural eating habits. That is the biggest cause of health issues. Well, at least they can feel better by wasting more of their taxpayers' money on useless programs.
playwhutyalike (needs to quit being a d@k) @ Jan 27th 2008 7:15PM
Good, make your parental controls. Then you will see it is the parents who are part of the problem.
Corbo @ Jan 27th 2008 7:18PM
People are overweight because they eat too much and exercise too little. The obvious solution is to stop them playing video games. Joined up thinking, courtesy of the Department of Health.
You want people to get fitter? Tell local councils to stop selling school playing fields and park spaces. Tell parents to cut back on their kids junk food diet and tell the advertisers to stop pushing it.
Oh, well, it could be worse. At least they're working with an industry body on something vaguely useful instead of trying to impose meaningless laws and taxes on it.
Jeff @ Jan 27th 2008 7:20PM
Seriously though, the majority of the gamers I know are in good shape. I
t's just the MMO kids who start to put on some weight. Runescape made one of my friends quit soccer and get fat, WoW... someone I know opts to play WoW supposedly because the subscription is cheaper than the gas to drive to hang out with people.
There's no time for eating when you're playing a 6 on 6 match of Unreal Tournament, Halo... I can get away with eating while I'm a medic in Team Fortress....
Skippy @ Jan 27th 2008 7:23PM
Strange, I play videogames but I'm not fat. I must be doing it wrong.
JB87 @ Jan 27th 2008 7:45PM
Indeed. These people need to realize that the reasons behind people getting overweight aren't as simple as "they play too many of those evil vidjagames".
Personally, I got fat during highschool (lack of recess, forced busing, terrible cafeteria food that resulted in exclusively eating packaged food from the snack line, etc.) and started losing weight after graduation-- and I play MMOs more hours per day than I did then.
Penguin Warlord @ Jan 27th 2008 10:48PM
You do realize that they are making generalizations. Obviously not every gamer is fat, however a lot of fat people are fat because they do nothing but stay in side and watch tv or play video games.
Stop just saying well I'm not fat so this is bullshit. The majority of posters on this site are from the states which is the fattest country in the world. And no, it's not video games fault, it's the parents who don't have the common sense / balls to kick their kids outside or sign them up for sports.
This may or may not work (probably not) however raising awareness of obesity is a good thing. And I don't mean awareness in a "everyone is perfect the way they are, even morbidly obese people who will die 30 year before the rest of us" way. I mean in a stop eating crap and get some exercise way.
Huey2k2 @ Jan 27th 2008 7:43PM
I was going to read that but I was too busy drinking a coke and eating some Hot Pockets and oreos.
What was it about again?
Ethan @ Jan 27th 2008 9:57PM
I'm actually eating instant noodles right now, I feel like a stereotype :(
Virtuous @ Jan 27th 2008 7:46PM
If these people had brains they wouldn't single out the video game industry. How about also targeting the junk food, fast food, TV and movie industries too?
Killer @ Jan 27th 2008 8:29PM
Oh...look another "Blame it on something else besides my own choices". The game industry isn't forcing you to buy the product, the fast food restraunt isnt forcing you to eat the food. It's another take no self-responciblity. It's always someone else's fault, not our own. When will it stop? Oh wait, that's right that would be making perfect judgement and self-critizing ourselves. We're all so perfect, its the evil money hungry corps. and buisness, that make our decisions. Got to love politicians.
It's a personal choice, but I guess having that freedom is a bad thing?
If people want to do it, they'll do it. )Whether it be drinking, smoking, drugs, sex, etc...) I would have thought after all the times of failing to control people they would give up, but I guess they really aren't that smart.
MasterInsan0 @ Jan 27th 2008 8:46PM
The real problem here is not video games; people would just as well sit around watching movies or TV if there were no video games. No, the real problem is threefold:
1) Bad parenting. Today's technology makes it oh-so-easy to keep your kids occupied without actually being near them, allowing you to actually keep up with your life instead of sacrificing it to take care of the child. The side effect, then, is that the kid is stuck watching TV or playing video games instead of going out and playing baseball with Timmy down the street.
2) Drastic reduction in manual labor. Back in the 19th and early 20th century, people were pretty much busy all the time, until it was time to go to bed. With the advent of modern technologies like the car, washing machines, and computers, no one actually needs to do anything anymore.
3) Easy access to cheap, tasty, and fatty foods. Technology makes greasy hamburgers only a few minutes away, and they're only $1. Hell, for the cost of a full meal at a franchise restaurant like, say, Applebee's, you could get TEN hamburgers at McDonald's. They're not even the tiny little one-patty meat-and-bread sandwiches, but *DOUBLE* cheeseburgers, with two patties and a slice of cheese all covered in ketchup. Don't like hamburgers? How about fake Mexican food, fried chicken, or fresh-to-your-door pizza? You don't even have to get up from the couch, and you can have food brought *to* you.
Nope, the problem's not video games. The problem's technology. Since we don't actually have to do anything anymore, we can't burn off all those calories that we intake, and since fatty foods are so easy to get a hold of, we're taking in more calories than ever.
Vigi @ Jan 27th 2008 11:01PM
So...the problem isn't video games, it's technology.
Right.
Points 1) and 2) completely contradict your conclusion.
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jan 27th 2008 8:55PM
So the message is...
GET A WII OR FUCKING DIE FATASS!!!
hvnlysoldr @ Jan 27th 2008 8:58PM
UK MANDATES WII NINTENDO ARMY SECURED
hvnlysoldr @ Jan 27th 2008 8:57PM
All current consoles have parental controls...
Ethan @ Jan 27th 2008 9:55PM
They must be trying to stop London from sinking over the next thousand years.
SaraAB87 @ Jan 27th 2008 9:59PM
No one ever mentions books even though reading is as much of a sedentary activity as playing video games, watching TV or using the Internets. Reading can also be just as addictive as the above activities, there are people who are compulsive readers and its never mentioned as a bad thing that can make us fat like those god awful videogames.
TWIMTBP @ Jan 27th 2008 10:09PM
Reading has the slightly desirable side-effect of making you a bit smarter. Besides that point of yours, i agree to the rest. More people get fat coz they're too lazy to move from in front of the TV. BAN TEH CABLE TV ZOMG!!1!
BigD145 @ Jan 27th 2008 10:35PM
@TWINMTBP Romance novels and any book advertised by Fox ... enough said...
StarFoxA @ Jan 27th 2008 10:08PM
Okay, I know a health doctor and she says that the single most best way to lose weight is to STOP EATING. Stopping kids from playing video games will do nothing.
mccomber @ Jan 27th 2008 11:06PM
A child with a controller in both hands has no hands left to eat with. I propose that we fill all children's hands with video game controllers in an effort to stop over eating.
SaraAB87 @ Jan 27th 2008 11:31PM
The problem is probably more overeating than it is playing video games, reading books or other sedentary activities. Of course there are many other factors than this that contribute to the obesity epidemic. The Japanese are not fat people and they have 100 times more studying to do than American children and play 100 times more video games than American children and yet they are not a society that is getting bigger by the day, they also have a ton more technology than America does, so we are doing something here that is making our kids fat and it has nothing to do with video games, technology or entertainment.
Video games can be just as educational as books, playing games help surgeons perform better and playing the Wii has also been proven to help doctors perform surgery better. There are also books that aren't as educational as other books and video games that aren't educational vs ones that are so its not one form of media that isn't educational and its certainly not media thats contributing to the obesity epidemic (other than perhaps advertisements for junk food). The internets can also be VERY educational if used in the proper sense much like books and videogames.
Am I not the only one here who is wondering if they put something in the junk food to hook kids from the very beginning so that they literately cannot stop eating it once they take a few bites? I wonder what it is about junk food that is so appealing vs healthy foods.
Our grocery stores here are also so saturated with junk food and high calorie and high fat processed foods that finding the healthy stuff amongst the midst of unhealthy foods really becomes a challenge which is part of the problem. Everywhere we look we are surrounded with food choices which are very very bad for us and very few choices of food which are good for us. It is even worse if you do not have the money to purchase the more expensive, healthy foods. A bag of frozen berries to snack on costs over 3$ here yet a bag of potato chips is 1$ for example.
Poisoned Al @ Jan 28th 2008 7:23AM
"Am I not the only one here who is wondering if they put something in the junk food to hook kids from the very beginning so that they literately cannot stop eating it once they take a few bites?"
Watch "Supersize Me", that covers a lot of the subjects.
li0nh34r7 @ Jan 27th 2008 11:50PM
its funny i am probably under wheight and i play more games then any one i know
Poisoned Al @ Jan 28th 2008 7:18AM
Well it's hard to play games AND stuff your face at the same time isn't it?
Poisoned Al @ Jan 28th 2008 6:43AM
The stupid thing is, the hardcore gamers I know are quite fit. Being out of shape makes you slower in all aspects, so unless you just want to play MUMORPUGERS
Poisoned Al @ Jan 28th 2008 6:46AM
(crap, I hit return by mistake) ... for the rest of your short life, you get your fat arse outside in the sunshine. Myself, I'm overweight due to the fact we are STILL finishing off the mountain of Christmas food. Time to use the excesise bike again methinks.
Claymore @ Jan 28th 2008 8:39AM
Generally I'm not the calmest person in the room but please read a bit before jumping on the "they think gaming makes people fat" bandwagon. Read the article a bit.
"As part of the UK Department of Health's £372 million action plan to reduce obesity"
This is part of a whole plan to help with obesity not just about gaming. And one piece of that is to HELP PARENTS (for all you "we need better parenting" ranters) with limited their kids time doing non-physical activities.
And for all all the "I run X number of miles and I'm superfit and play games". GREAT that's what these people are trying to accomplish. Have people be healthy like you but still be able to enjoy gaming.
And if you click on the link the title is: "ELSPA welcomes anti-obesity scheme". So the industry is fine with helping out with this issue... why aren't you?
Try not to be so defensive about this kind of stuff. And definitely dig a bit below the surface.