We all lived in fear of getting chicken pox when we were younger, but according to the media a couple of weeks ago, mothers should also be concerned of their children getting rickets, from where else? Video games of course.
The story indicated that the disease, caused by a lack of exposure to sunlight thus denying us all that delicious vitamin D we crave, was making a big come back as the kiddies were staying in a lot more.
Some newspapers, such as the Metro went a bit mental over this, indicating that games were responsible for more blight on society, arguing that they were the reason that all of the children who weren’t outside were severely crippled with wonky legs.
Of course such claims are unsettling, but also quite far fetched and it caught the attention of Gamers’ Voice, founded by MP Tom Watson, who led the charge against this report.
He went straight to Professor Simon Pearce, the author of this clinical review and got the reply:
“No we really didn’t do a study to show that, or say that gaming causes rickets. It was a classic piece of dodgy lazy journalism, taking 3 words out of PA’s hyped-up version of our press release.”
I think we can all come away from this with a smug grin on our faces. It’s really nice to see a politician in our corner who has finally stood up and decided that enough unreasonable accusations have been made against games.
The Guardian angel of games
Australia and Germany really need more people like him!