Childhood Obesity, Wii-Fit and fat testing: where do video games draw the line?

Yes, childhood obesity is an epidemic in the US and most industrialized cultures. Children are not getting enough exercise and physical activity. Makers of video games like Wii-Fit are trying to make an impact and get children more active.

Unfortunately, Wii-Fit's intentions may be good but there methods include a sad flaw. They determine a child's BMI (Body Mass Index). They will tell the child if they fall into an overweight or obese category, too.

Labeling a child based on a generic test is making some folks angry. Elizabeth Hasselbeck (of Survivor and the View TV shows) and English obesity experts are taking issue with the Wii-Fit tactic of measuring body fat through BMI (Body Mass Index).

Watch this video to see what's got them fired-up:


Perhaps Wii-Fit will make more children active. And perhaps some children will wonder what BMI really means. But it seems that the producers of Wii-Fit are making a costly mistake by attempting to take fitness measurements and then scoring children.

Wii-Fit is still a video game. And that is not the best medium for accurate measurements and health education lessons.