We're used to scientists, the government and even beverage companies taking the game industry to task for contributing to the childhood obesity epidemic. But now there's a new, even more unlikely source using gaming as an obesity scapegoat -- McDonald's.

Talking to the London Times, McDonald's UK chief executive Steve Easterbrook said games are part of a "lifestyle element" that has led to a rise in childhood obesity. "There's fewer green spaces and kids are sat home playing computer games on the TV when in the past they'd have been burning off energy outside," he said.

To be fair, Easterbrook didn't lay the blame completely at gaming's feet. "The issue of obesity is complex," he said, while also acknowledging that the government, the food industry, and good old personal responsibility have their part to play in solving the problem. Still, any organization that serves a "deluxe breakfast" with 59 grams of fat should be very careful when shifting the blame.

An open letter in the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper condemns "junk culture" -- junk food, junk entertainment and a fast-moving culture -- for its effect on children, with sombre phrases like "ruining our children" and "the death of childhood" weighing down its paragraphs. From the letter:

[Children] still need what developing human beings have always needed, including real food (as opposed to processed "junk"), real play (as opposed to sedentary, screen-based entertainment), first-hand experience of the world they live in and regular interaction with the real-life significant adults in their lives.

A scathing commentary on the evils of modern life -- and what's more, plenty of readers agree that the hands-off parenting enabled by video games is a big problem for today's youth. Perhaps the high profile given to this complaint (a national broadsheet) will open up some serious debate on the matter, rather than give a platform for rabid anti-gaming propaganda to spread to the UK as well.