An innocent Nintendo game about balance and fitness is probably the last product that would ever come to mind when you think about video game controversy, but Nintendo's popular Wii Fit (which went on sale in Europe in late April and is launching in the U.S. on May 19) has prompted some experts to question Nintendo's methods for measuring body weight and fitness.
A report in the U.K. paper Daily Mail highlighted an incident in which a 10-year-old girl was told by the Wii Fit software that she's "fat." The girl was very upset to be told that and the parents were none too pleased.
Shigeru Miyamoto - Photo Gallery
Nintendo's fabled designer through the years
More Shiggy Pics
A famous video game creator for Japanese video game giant Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, demonstrates how to use the new fitness video game on the new balancing board controller for the company's video game console Wii in Chiba, suburban Tokyo, 10 October 2007. Nintendo will launch the new fitness video game softwarer WiiFit including the balancing board controller on 01 December.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images
A famous video game creator for Japanese video game giant Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, demonstrates how to use the new fitness video game on the new balancing board controller for the company's video game console Wii in Chiba, suburban Tokyo, 10 October 2007. Nintendo will launch the new fitness video game softwarer WiiFit including the balancing board controller on 01 December.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images
The famous video game creator for Japanese video game giant Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, displays the new balancing board controller for the company's video game console Wii in Chiba, suburban Tokyo, 10 October 2007. Nintendo will launch a new fitness video game software WiiFit, including the balancing board controller on 01 December.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images
The famous video game creator for Japanese video game giant Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, displays the new balancing board controller for the company's video game console Wii in Chiba, suburban Tokyo, 10 October 2007. Nintendo will launch a new fitness video game software WiiFit, including the balancing board controller on 01 December.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images
Tokyo, JAPAN: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto displays the remote control of the new video game console 'Wii' at a press preview in Tokyo. Nintendo recalled 3.2 million wrist straps for its new Wii console ,15 December 2006, after reports of enthusiastic users inadvertently sending the motion-sensing controller crashing into their TV screens.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images
Tokyo, JAPAN: Japan's video game giant Nintendo game creator Shigeru Miyamoto (L), known as the father of Super Mario, and President Satoru Iwata playing a tennis game during a demonstration at a press conference in Tokyo. The Japanese electronic game maker Nintendo said Friday 15 December 2006 it was not recalling motion-sensing controllers for its new Wii model but would exchange wrist straps that have broken inadvertently. 'Nintendo is not recalling wrist straps furnished with the motion-sensing remote control unit for its new computer game Wii,' the company said in a French-language statement received in Paris.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images
Nintendo's Wii Games Console To Go On Sale In Europe
TOKYO - DECEMBER 7: Nintendo president Satoru Iwata (R) and software creator Shigeru Miyamoto (L) demonstrate game Wii during a press conference on December 7, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan. Wii will go on sale on December 8 in Europe.Junko Kimura/Getty Images
Nintendo's Wii Games Console To Go On Sale In Europe
TOKYO - DECEMBER 7: Nintendo president Satoru Iwata (L) and software creator Shigeru Miyamoto (R) present the Wii game console during a press conference on December 7, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan. Wii will go on sale on December 8 in Europe.Junko Kimura/Getty Images
Nintendo's Wii Games Console To Go On Sale In Europe
TOKYO - DECEMBER 7: Nintendo president Satoru Iwata (L) and software creator Shigeru Miyamoto (R) present the company's new remote games console, Wii, during a press conference on December 7, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan. Wii will go on sale on December 8 in Europe.Junko Kimura/Getty Images
Tokyo, JAPAN: Japan's video game giant Nintendo President Satoru Iwata (L) and the company's game creator Shigeru Miyamoto, known as father of Super Mario, shows a controler from Nintendo's new video game console 'Wii' at a press conference in Tokyo 07 December 2006. Nintendo said 15 December 2006 that it will recall 3.2 million hand straps for its new Wii games console after reports of users inadvertently throwing the motion-sensing controller into their TV screens.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images
"She is a perfectly healthy, 4ft 9in tall 10-year-old who swims, dances and weighs only six stone," said the father. "She is solidly built but not fat. She was devastated to be called fat and we had to work hard to convince her she isn't. I know it is just a game but we already have to worry about young girls starving themselves to look like magazine models and now we have a game that tells them they're fat. This to me is very worrying."
It's apparently worrying to Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum as well. In Wii Fit after a player enters his/her height, the software uses BMI to measure body fat based on an adult's height and weight. Fry, however, thinks the measurement is misleading and he'd like to see children banned from playing the game.
"I'm absolutely aghast that children are being told they are fat," he said. "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."
For its part, Nintendo acknowledged that it's not the most accurate tool for children to measure body fat and the company apologized. "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," a company rep 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."
Reader Comments (525)
Yeah, and btw a stone is 14 pounds. You guys know that right? So..like I'm guessing 84 pounds? Wasn't that it? Oh well just passing by again.
Here's the thing about BMI. It was developed originally to measure population, not overall fitness, in the 1800s in Belgium. If we used body mass index, and this is true, most professional athletes would be considered fat. Also, a good deal of male celebrities would be considered fat. One off the bat I can think of is Brad Pitt. I run about five miles a day, attend yoga class twice a week, and lift weights five days a week. According to BMI, I am overweight for my height. Obviously BMI needs to modernized. Weightlifting and muscle building is more prevalent and food is far more abundant than it was in the 1800s.
One in three schoolchildren are OBESE.. that is more than FAT, according to the Washington Post, Susan Levine and Rob Stein on May 18, 2008. According to Sports Illustrated, 9/22/03, "The Fat of the Land" article: "Americans have the fattest kids on earth. Over the last 20 years the number of overweight children in this country has doubled. Soon, if that trend continues, one of every three kids will be obese." So we need better nutrition and checkups for children! Nothing substitutes a proper doctor's regimen and program of nutrition. However, if someone wants to find a way to properly standardize a range of acceptable body weight to height to mass for kids, so be it! Their health is paramount, even if it means being brutally honest.
FDTINC: It seems a lot of things "offend" you. But it is ignorance and bigotry, such as yours, that is most offensive. I would rather have a fat person next to me than have you in the same state...I hope I offend you - it would be a compliment.
FDTINC: You are a bigoted, uneducated idiot! Not everyone who is fat has made that choice for themselves, Some weight problems are caused by genetics, some from medical conditions. But YOUR problem of a FAT HEAD comes from sheer ignorance.
Wow, I'm like back! :O We all have been over this, she isn't fat, the BMI index is wrong! D=
WANCARTIER: Nor is it helpful for the game to be WRONG! Many of you on this post are not stopping to think that we are talking about children who are not yet emotionally developed, and are not yet fully developed physically, either. Yet, you would treat them as you would adults! Lord, I hope you are not parents, or teachers. Once more - any person - or game - that makes judgements based on BMI is making judgements based on phony "science", since BMI cannot take into consideration the distinct and different body TYPES. And when you use phony science to insult a child who is not yet emotionally developed, you can do lasting damage. And then you have a kid who might commit suicide (like the girl who was called fat on the Internet), or a kid who brings an assault rifle to school...
Obviously these people can't read, or at least have chosen not to read all the facts. In all the articles I have read eagerly awaiting the Wii Fit it clearly states that "For players under 20 years of age: The BMI assessment in Wii Fit is designed for adults, not for players between ages 2 and 19." All this controversy when all someone had to do is read before they flipped out.
People its a game! If you are fat you are fat. This world has come down in where people have to be dishonest to one another. The girl most probably a fat piggy- deal with it!
kattheclosetstar wrote: "Heavy people are one of the last few groups you can harass at will. " And THANKFULLY SO!. There are far too many groups left that can be harassed these ultre PC days, but the ones that CAUSE their condition at least still are fair game. "It would be great if everyone who is prejudiced against the obese..." Who says prejudiced? We base it all on OH SO VISIBLE FACT! After all the rolls of flesh, and pounds of fat oozing out at every seam are impossible to hide. I wish we couldn't notice all that, then it would not be offensive. YES indeed: OFFENSIVE. When someone farts, my sense of smell is offended. When someone burps, my sense of hearing is offended. and when someone is FAAAAT, my sense of sight is offended. And when these huge TUBS sit next to me on a plane, subway, movie theater, just about everything is OFFENSIVE, especially the unavoidable encroachment on my paid for space BTW, when are the airlines finally going to charge OBESE people more per ticket? It is not FAIR, that a normal weight person with 2x 55 lbs allowance gets dinged for excess luggage weight, when someone carrying on TWICE that, all stored in their bodies, does not have to pay more. We normla people are SUBSIDIZING the lardbutts, by having the price for all tickets go up. And more weight = more fuel, so OBESE blubbers are also bad for the environment.