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UK NEWSBACK OUR SUNDAY EXPRESS CAMPAIGN: FIT FOR THE FUTURE
Thursday February 11,2010 By James FieldingBLAMED for soaring child obesity levels and the return of rickets, the computer games industry has never been under greater scrutiny. British youngsters are the most unhealthy in Europe and spend on average 730 hours a year slouched in front of a TV screen rather than taking part in physical activity.
The worrying drop in fitness levels is putting their lives at risk. To combat the problem before it spirals out of control, the Sunday Express today urges the Government to plough the huge amount of tax generated from video games revenue into developing sports facilities for children. The NHS has released figures which reveal 100 youngsters are treated for rickets in England alone every year. The bone-wasting disease, which can lead to bowed legs, has not been seen as a serious problem since Victorian times when it became a curse on poor families living in squalid inner city slums. Experts believe its return has been triggered by the fact so many youngsters prefer to play on games consoles in their bedrooms rather than experience the great outdoors, meaning vitamin D deficiencies are alarmingly high.
In 2009, the sales of video games and hardware in the UK totalled £3.311billion while for 2008 the figure was even higher at £4.034billion. The amount the Government would have made from computer games VAT in 2008 is roughly £600million, while in 2009 they would have made roughly £400million. Using the VAT raised from computer games, including those that claim to have health benefits like the Nintendo Wii Fitness range, the Government will have millions available to build more football pitches, athletic tracks and tennis courts. Such a move would clearly help lower the sky high NHS bill and go some way to improving the antisocial behaviour blighting Broken Britain. Backing our crusade, Lib Dems Health spokesman Norman Lamb called for the proposal to be investigated fully by the Government. He said: “Computer games generate a lot of tax which should be invested into preventing problems like child obesity and rickets. Funding new sports facilities through VAT raised from computer games should be looked at. Children have to be encouraged to keep active.” Charity Kidscape has lent its support and believes with London set to host the 2012 Olympic Games, there has never been a better opportunity to break the sluggish lifestyle of the PlayStation Generation. Director Claude Knight said: “A substantial revenue stream is raised from the VAT on computer games.
“As these contribute to sedentary lifestyles and the associated health risks it would be a positive move for the Government to use some of this revenue to develop additional sporting facilities for young people. “This would be particularly apt as we approach 2012.” Kidscape also believe that software companies should use some of their wealth on promoting physical activity beyond the school gates. Britain’s dismal record on children’s health and physical exercise was laid bare in a report last month that showed how child fitness levels are falling twice as fast as anywhere in the world. Researchers from the University of Essex found that while levels globally were decreasing by around four per cent a year, in the UK they have plummeted by eight per cent. Dr Gavin Sandercock, who led the research, told how the average British youngster, aged between nine and 16, spends two hours a night playing on games consoles like PlayStation and Xbox, which amounts to 730 hours a year. In contrast, children in Europe spend on average 657 hours a year in front of TV screens. Dr Sandercock explained how boys are the biggest offenders with 13 per cent of those quizzed admitting they spend up to four hours locked in games. In more extreme cases, mostly boys aged between 14 and 16, some revealed they do nothing but play video games of an evening, even resorting to eating food with one hand while the other gripped a controller. Dr Sandercock said: “They come straight home from school and play a games console until they go to bed. That includes playing while they eat. “There has also been a boom in fitness software like Nintendo Wii Fit but the simple fact is that it’s never going to replace playing sport for real or going to the gym.” Clearly computer games can play a major role in enticing youngsters into sport. Praising the “brain-training” software available on the Nintendo DS, Government Education Minister Mike Russell admitted he believes young people need to develop successfully in a modern society “within which computers are so important”. One fact is clear. With even their colleagues at the Department of Health admitting childhood obesity rates are still too high, something drastic needs to be done. BACK OUR CAMPAIGN: SIGN THE 10 DOWNING STREET ONLINE PETITION HERE
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A SLIGHTLY EASIER SOLUTION...
10.02.10, 2:06am
Whilst this is a real problem, it would make more sense to harness the technology that they've already embraced to help the children that have become obese back to health.
Wii Fit is a start, along with "games" like Wii Sports, but better quality products like VirtualGym TV which is web/computer based exercise delivery, is more likely to reach out and engage with this technically minded audience.
It's only part of the solution, but its an important part.
• Posted by: rjsdavis • Report Comment
OH DEAR
09.02.10, 9:34pm
The Rt Hon Norman Lamb and the Sunday Express have the right idea but, James, there's some inaccurate facts in this campaign that are misleading all parties involved and subsequently the public. This should be corrected immediately.
Firstly, why focus on funding from VAT from video games? It is true that sedentary gaming and computer use go hand in hand with obesity and the related illnesses, but wouldn't that lead the educated man to bring Gordon Brown's £350m free laptop initiative into question first?
270,000 Families are going to be deliberately encouraged into sedentary behaviour by the introduction of £1,100 laptop and 12 month broadband bundles. Quite why the package has to cost this much when a quick check of online retailers shows that 24 month access and a laptop costs just £420.
The £350m that Gordon Brown is spending making families less healthy is comparable with the £325m the Government is spending on the Change4Life campaign to get families more healthy. If there is logic to this way of thinking it escapes me. What doesn’t escape me is that this is taxpayers money.
Aside from the money, there’s key facts about fitness gaming that are very misleading. Dr Sandercock wrongly explains that fitness gaming is not as good for you as the gym or as socially engaging as sport. It is inexcusable that a researcher cannot research. If Dr Sanderson could actually research (google or Wikipedia may help), he would find a product in fitness gaming that is 4 times more exercise than the Wii and 6 times more engaging than the gym.
I am disappointed that the Sunday Express is getting behind such flawed research. Consider the alternatives and get behind something that will work. There’s lots of empty parks and leisure centres in the UK, and the reason is kids are not fit enough to want to use these facilities. Creating more facilities is nonsense.
What makes sense is to use the power of computer and video games to make a step towards becoming more active and hence more able, confident and willing to take up traditional sport and exercise. If Gordon Brown spent his commited £350m on Gamercize he would actually improve the fitness of not 270,000 families, but 2,700,00 familes.
Even combing a free laptop and broadband (at sensible prices) with Gamercize in joined up thinking the Government could meet the objectives on Digital Britain and improve health for 660,000 families. What makes sense is to correct the problems that exist, not invent new ways to compensate for the lack of fact and understanding.
• Posted by: RichardCoshott • Report Comment
WHAT ABOUT THE PARENTS?
07.02.10, 10:36pm
Surely it is up to parents as to how much or little time your children spend slumped in front of a computer screen? I suspect that weak-willed parents will say that it's impossible to wean their kids off computers, as it is impossible to wean them off anything else, but if so they are failing dismally as parents.
• Posted by: 3110garfield • Report Comment
GAMES FIRMS
07.02.10, 9:40pm
So let me get this straight. All that has to be done is build more sports facilities and the children will drop their video games and rush over to participate in sports and get fit. No need for parents to get involved and be responsible parents.
If you dont get the parents to become responsible parents there will be empty playing fields and gyms strew accross the land. but then again getting children fit is not the real purpose is it? Its to raise taxes and blame some organization that can afford to pay.
Who writes this utter tripe? What a society, blame anybody except those responsible.
• Posted by: kennymac825 • Report Comment
UTTER TOSH
07.02.10, 1:42am
I have never read such utter tosh in a long time ! Once again we have liberal, limp wristed apologists blaming everything and everyone for peoples faults and crimes. Why should the games industry be held to account ? Is there no area of life that these people think we are responsible for ?
If children are getting fat then it is the responsibility of THE PARENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not the Government or the games industry. This socialist drivel has to stop!
I ate beefburger beans and chips EVERY day for my entire secondary schooling. According to the experts I should either be dead of a heart attack or grossly obese. I am neither. The difference being is I either walked or rode to school and after I was out running around the fields or park till bedtime.
It is time for people to be made responsible for their actions like it was before this shower of third rate shysters took over not just Government but it seems every aspect of our lives!
• Posted by: SamuiDunc • Report Comment
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