It's official – prolonged gaming does not give you rickets, despite many a media report last week (including our own) which claimed this may well be the case.
The original story appeared in London's Metro newspaper, which went with the incendiary headline: 'Video gaming leads to surge in rickets'.
It turns out, however, Dr Tim Cheetham's claims were misconstrued in the article. How do we know this? Well, he's spoken out and put the rickets record, er, straight.
Lack of outdoor activity
Speaking to GamesBrief.com, Cheetham explained: "I understand [the] Metro has said that we have linked computers to rickets, whereas we are actually saying lack of outdoor activity in childhood is a risk for poor D nutritional state...
"We do not say that gaming causes rickets... The average age of a child with rickets is around 20 months old: too young to use a keyboard and mouse!"
So, there you have it. Now all we need to confirm is that self-loving does not make you blind and we will be happy TechRadar bunnies.
Via CVG.com
Your comments (2) Click to add a new comment
bison21
January 25th 2010
2. There's a <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/news/2010/01January/Pages/Rickets-on-the-rise.aspx">full rundown on why the papers were wrong to claim the surge in rickets cases was caused by gaming</a> on the NHS website's Behind the Headlines page (health news with no media spin basically).
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bpearson
January 25th 2010
1. What? A national newspaper taking a quote completely out of context to fit their story??!!
What is the world coming to???
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