President Barrack Obama is known to be a bit of a geek at heart, but it looks like he’s got his sights set on video games, and perhaps not in a good way. Whilst addressing the American Medical Association in Chicago yesterday, President Obama called out video games as a factor in children’s unhealthy lifestyles.
President Obama told the AMA: “The second step that we can all agree on is to invest more in preventive care so that we can avoid illness and disease in the first place. That starts with each of us taking more responsibility for our health and the health of our children. It means going for a run or hitting the gym, and raising our children to step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside.”
It’s not the first run in he’s had with video games; Obama has previously linked video games to academic under-achievement and he’s claimed that Chinese and Indian children are helping their nations become more competitive with the USA through not playing video games.
The irony is that Obama wasn’t so down on gaming in the run up to the election. He used in-game advertising to promote his campaign for change in titles such as Burnout Paradise, NASCAR 09, NHL 09, NBA Live 08, Need For Speed: Carbon, Need For Speed: ProStreet, NFL Tour, and Skate.
His recent statements echo the UK Government’s Change4Life campaign. Fortunately, this time no one’s unwittingly linking a major console brand to premature death in children.
(via GamePolitics)
