Wii Fit hasn't even been released in North America yet, but a number of European parents are already criticizing the game for creating bad body images to healthy kids.
"My DSD [Dear Step Daughter] came round this weekend and we let her play on our wii-fit. We have all laughed and joked about being told that we're fat and need to lose weight", said Mrs. Hobbes on Disney's community forum. "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", Mrs. Hobbes explained. "She was devasted 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. This to me is very worrying and I hope that is doesn't cause emotional problems for any youngsters out there."
Mrs. Hobbes's story stirred a lot of similar stories, all confirming that Wii Fit has a tendency of labeling healthy people "fat".
" A child who is 4'9'' and weighs 92lbs has a BMI of 19.9, based on how the Wii uses BMI to classify a child there is no way that a child with a BMI of 19.9 would be classified overweight", another forum member commented , before adding that "We should praise Nintendo and Wiifit for bringing parents and children together on the same platform and using an unbiased (albeit not perfectly accurate) approach to inform parents if their child is in danger of serious weight related issues such as diabetes, and hypertension."
According to CDC's BMI calculation page, "Based on the height and weight entered, the BMI is 19.9, placing the BMI-for-age at the 84th percentile for girls aged 10 years 0 months. This child has a healthy weight."
