Parents, who hope that giving their fat kids Nintendo Wii exercise games will sort them out, are fooling themselves, according to new research.

A study undertaken by the Children's Nutrition Research Centre at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and published early this year in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics said that kids that play them are just as fat and unhealthy as ever. The participants in this study were children 9 to 12 years old who had a body mass index above the median and whose households did not already have a video game console.

Each was given a Wii. Half were randomly assigned to a group that could choose two among the five most physically demanding games that could be found: Active Life: Extreme Challenge; EA Sports Active; Dance Dance Revolution; Wii Fit Plus; and Wii Sports. The other half could choose among the most popular games that are played passively, like Disney Sing It: Pop Hits and Madden NFL 10. They were then tested periodically to measure physical activity over the 13-week experiment. The researchers found "no evidence that children receiving the active video games were more active in general, or at any time, than children receiving the inactive video games."

Dr. Charles T. Cappetta, an executive committee member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness said that ut may seem that active video games are an easy solution to getting kids off the couch.  It just does not work.
It might be better that parents learn to tell their spoilt brats that they can't eat shedloads of sweet stuff and have to go outside and play.

Of course, guilt soaked modern parents are more interested in protecting their precious snowflakes from the perils of porn and giving them whatever they ask, than they are making sure they live long healthy lives.