Games are making kids fat and lazy

The World Health Organization says nearly a third of Earth's kids are not getting enough exercise, and video games are part of the problem.

After a recent study of 72,845 schoolchildren aged 13 to 15 in 34 nations, the World Health Organization has concluded that the kids these days are fat and lazy.  Nearly a third of teenagers around the world are spending at least three hours a day glued to a screen, either playing games, watching TV, or surfing the net.  These kids were classified by the WHO as sedentary, while kids that get at least one hour of exercise five or more days a week were classified as active.  However, this doesn't count exercise in gym classes.  Coasting on gym class exercise would be cheating.

With these criteria, 25% of boys and 15% of girls are active, while 25% of boys and 30% of girls are sedentary.  In fact, boys are more active than girls in 33 of the 34 nations studied.  Zambia is the only country where the girls are more active than the boys, but that's because Zambia has the laziest boys in the world, and only 8% are considered active.  Not to be outdone, the least active girls in the world are in Egypt, where only 4% are considered active.

After calling the whole planet's children couch potatoes, they speculate that the problem may be caused by urbanization and access to TVs and cars, and that possible ways to help fight the epidemic could be more bike lanes, pedestrian crossings, and definitely education.  Or maybe we could take a break from our epic 100 hour adventures, get out of our gaming massage chairs, and play Wii Fit for three hours a day to have the best of both worlds.

Source: Link