The Nintendo Wii has been getting its share of bad press lately. First, the internet was buzzing about the Wii's lame games earlier this month. Now, the newest Wii game, Wii Fit, has launched in Japan and Europe and is scheduled to launch in North America on May 19th, but it's already drumming up negative PR. Why? Because it told a 10-year old girl she was "fat".
The Wii Fit measures a player's body mass index (BMI). A 10-year old girl from Britain stepped on the Wii's Balance Board, entered her height and weight, and was promptly given her BMI and corresponding label - in her case, the label she was given was "fat". Truth be told, she isn't fat.
As you can imagine, parents and advocates for child health are up in arms over the irresponsibility of the Wii Fit's labeling system since children's BMIs vary constantly. The Wii Fit is rated E for Everyone, but BMI as used in the Wii Fit has been called misleading by health experts.
Nintendo's response was to say they would not add a disclaimer on the Wii Fit. Instead, Nintedo's spokesperson said, "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."
Sounds like adding a disclaimer would be a good idea in this case. What do you think?
Wow. I've never known calling someone fat to encourage them to loose weight; it tends to make them feel worse about themselves and then they eat more - especially if that's their coping mechanism. Perhaps instead of labeling people "fat" or "skinny" they should try simply telling people what their BMI is. It seems to me that this game is not really intended to help people get fit, it's supposed to reinforce normalized beauty standards, and that can be very harmful to the psyche of adults and children.
A disclaimer is the absolute minimum of what they should do with this game. I'd be in favor of altering the concept to actually promote good health.
Posted by: Kimberlee Morrison | May 23, 2008 12:42 PM | Permalink to Comment