Videogames and child obesity

Without starting the everlasting discussion about the bad influence of videogames I can agree with the message from this video.
“Videogames are one of the principal causes of child obesity. Encourage children to play outside” says this video from Hospital San Raffaele.
Playing videogames can be educational and relaxing, just like playing outside. The main task for parents and children is to find the right balance between those two.

Is it a good video I asked my Twitter followers:
@Nedra: I love the premise of that video! Well done, but I wouldn’t blame video games themselves for child obesity. It’s the parent/child.
@steeph: Parents are gone in 20 seconds. The start of the video isn’t inviting for the target audience. (roughly translated from Dutch)

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

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Comments

Videogames do NOT cause obesity. I’ve played video games for years and I’m not remotely obese. A lot of my friends are hardcore gamers and they haven’t an extra pound between them.

What really causes obesity is poor nutrition and not enough exercise. The parents are responsible for making their children eat healthy and getting exercise. If they choose to ignore this and they let the child sit in all day playing videogames so he doesn’t get kidnapped or run over by a car, they’re going to have a fat child.

Stop trying to shift the blame onto someone else.