Wii Will Tell You Your Kid is Fat!
Apparently the Wii Fit (Nintendo) called a 10 year old girl she was fat, and her mother got quite irate! So Nintendo wrote a formal apology. Check it out:
We have all laughed and joked about being told that we’re fat and need to lose weight but I was gobsmacked when it told her that she is overweight. She is a healthy 10 year old girl with an active lifestyle, she swims and dances every week. She is 92lbs and 4ft9″ tall and there is not an inch of fat on her. She is solidly built but not fat. She was devastated to be called fat and we had to work hard to convince her that she isn’t. I know it is just a game but seriously we already have to worry about young girls starving themselves to look like the magazine models and now we have a game that tells them their fat.
Nintendo was immediately assailed as, rightly, it was pointed out that BMI measurements for children aren’t accurate. In fact, there are reasons that a BMI measurement may not be accurate for certain adults, as well.
A Nintendo statement said:
Nintendo would like to apologize to any customers offended by the in-game terminology used to classify a player’s current BMI status, as part of the BMI measurement system integrated into Wii Fit.
Wii Fit is still capable of measuring the BMI for people aged between two and 20 but the resulting figures may not be entirely accurate for younger age groups due to varying levels of development.
Well there you go… I think that you should encourage your children to be physically fit (which maybe this woman was trying to do by buying this game), but don’t obsess over it. Kids grow at different rates… in many cases kids are chubby in preadolescence then they stretch out when they reach puberty. Life is hard enough when your a kid, but having to worry about your appearance (unless your grossly obese) is bullsh*t. F*#k You Nintendo… Your f*#king mean!
This creeps me out!
Tags: BMI, chubby, fat, grossly obese, Nintendo, physically fit, Wii Fit
May 20th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
so all the game has to go by is how it is being played. it cant actually see you! so what has happened here is the just happened to have a couple of bad games, and based its findings on that. that should have been the first thing explained to the little girl. IT IS A GAME!
May 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
the girl had the bad games, the girl. stupid mad typing fingers!
January 13th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Very nice Game. I like it.