Who could possibly have envisaged Nintendo’s Wii Fit as being the next software
title to have ‘nanny state’ experts up in arms and calling for
reclassification and even a ban, but, thanks to the fact that a certain
Wii Fit balance board had the audacity to call a young girl ‘fat’
that’s exactly what’s happened.
According to the Daily Mail (duly credited), the offending Wii Fit
balance board, based somewhere in the South East of England, horrified
the family of a 10 year old girl who’s billed as being ‘solidly built’
(purportedly her father’s words, not ours) when it called her ‘fat’.
“She is a perfectly healthy, 4ft 9in tall 10-year-old who swims,
dances and weighs only six stone,” said the father, who did not want to
be named for fear of embarrassing the girl further, states the Daily
Mail who also reports that obesity experts are now calling for
Nintendo’s Wii Fit to be banned as far as young children are concerned.
Nintendo have responded by issuing a press statement reading:
‘Nintendo would like to apologise 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. [The] 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.’