Just over a week ago, we reported on a girl who was called fat by an unseeing, unfeeling machine, when her stepmother insisted she wasn't. Turns out it might be a common occurance, as long as Nintendo uses the controversial BMI system to determine fitness.
For those who've never encountered it, BMI, short for body mass index, is a system that divides weight by height to produce a number that fits on a scale from underweight to obese. The problem is, as children grow up, they often have a height disproportionate to their weight, and that could lead to cases like this, where Wii Fit interprets that as obesity.
For this reason, Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum is urging parents not to let their children use Wii Fit:
"I'm absolutely aghast that children are being told they are fat... BMI is far from perfect but with children it simply should not be used... A child's BMI can change every month and it is perfectly possible for a child to be stocky, yet still very fit... I would be very concerned if children were using this game and I believe it should carry a warning for parents."
This prompted a response from Nintendo:
"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."
There are two ways you could look at this issue. On one hand, being called fat could be more motivation to lose weight, which is what the game is trying to do, right? On the other hand, no one wants to be insulted by something they paid for, especially not children.
What should you do if you're a parent and you've already let this digital bully into your home? Probably just let your kids play the game for the exercises and weight-tracking charts, and tell them to ignore the game's opinion of their weight and be proud of themselves for getting active.
