Thats a terrible benchmark.

Thats the same as if he said "There are no kids on the playground because of Videogames"...oh wait...

I am 100% sure about one fact though, my age group is the last generation that had any golden years left as a childhood.

I don't see kids imitating Mighty Ducks out on the streets, no one watches Saturday morning cartoons anymore, no one is playing pog on the curb, no one reads any more Garfield or Calvin&Hobbes.

Its just in front of the monitor on the intranet 24/7.

Fyren

Remember your statistics kids, correlation != causation.

SpishackCola

Is this not the Japanese and Americans slowly making sure that the children in the UK, and throughout Europe, are getting weaker so there can be an imminent take over around the 6 generations of consoles, I mean we're going to be way too busy playing computer games and not falling out of trees to stop anyone from taking us over, ah well, back to FFVII, I've got a mountain to climb

Dannon

@ManjiKengo: but everyone here already knew that manji, shut the hell up.

ManjiKengo

This is quite possibly the weakest correlation I have ever seen.

jambe

less tree climbing also lead to less kids falling out of trees.

dunno, i see it as a good thing.

ManjiKengo

So as a kid I climbed many a tree, and not all I have to show it is shitty cartilage in my knees from jumping out.

My interest in video games however has motivated me to go to school and eventually (hopefully) a career (or at the very least a job lol). even if things don't work out to be all sunshine and daisies it still did way more than climbing tree's ever will.

besides we live in a world where physical strength is completely meaningless. Maybe back when vikings around it mattered but now and days power is determined by pulling a trigger or pushing a button.

But *insert your deity here* forbid a governing body actually looks at REAL issues as opposed to half assing it. It's basically the equivalent of doing the minimum work required to not get fired or the minimum work required to get a passing grade.

demonknightinuyasha

This is so obviously shit logic.

You do not need to have read Engel's text on "Fallacies and Pitfalls of Language" to easily recognize this is a "false cause"- that which assumes that two events juxtaposed in time or space have a cause and effect relationship.

Mega-Driven

@DireWombat: Grr, "displace," not "displaced."

DireWombat

Kids really should go outside and DO something. They should study harder too. Put the goddamn Playstation away and work hard to contribute to your generation.

Note: I only say this because I'm 25 and it doesn't apply to me anymore. Suckers.

But, you gotta admit that it would be nice if the snot-nosed brat on the other end of Halo 3 (you know, the one calling you a "dick-munching fagbait" or saying "u sound hot")was, say, outside.

cornunderscore2x

I have a better explanation -- perhaps they should do a count of how many trees there are now as compared to 1999. Wouldn't less trees indicate less opportunity to climb and therefore less injuries?

Perhaps the government should do more to open greenspace in cities and make them safe so parents feel comfortable having kids outside rather than blaming games for keeping them inside.

But, no, they'd rather tear up fields, build more buildings, and cut back on neighborhood police patrols. Then blame all the ills on something other than their own ignorant agendas.

jayntampa

Interesting. Of course, to have any validity, they'd need to at least show a trend, rather than compare two isolated data points.

But let's just assume that the data is good, and children are sustaining fewer injuries from falling out of trees over time. Let's explore some possible explanations:

1) The conclusion reached by the authors: kids are playing more video games and climbing trees less often, leading to childhoods different from those of their parents. Total social collapse can't be far behind.

2) There are fewer trees around, having been cut down to make room for parking lots. Does the UK do as much of this as we do here in the colonies?

3) Kids have better hand-eye coordination from playing video games, so they don't fall down as much. My personal favorite. (=

4) Mutations in the gene pool have led to a strain of tougher children whose flesh and bones regenerate instantly after arboreal mishaps. Given another two or three generations of progress, this new species of British supermen will displaced Homo sapiens as the dominant life-form on earth.

See? Data analysis can be fun.

DireWombat

Hah... how about the reason kids aren't falling out of trees as often is because their reflexes have been improved through playing video games, so when they start to fall they catch themselves.

Anyways, if you found something else that stopped kids from getting hurt at such a high rate the creator would be praised, but when video games do it people throw a fit. There's one word for this... hypocrisy.

Woden501

so they see less kids getting hurt from falling off trees, and automatically blame gaming

maybe its cause their smarter, or more sensible, or just god damn amazing tree climbers like tarazan

plus its a good thing less kids are getting hurt, its less of a chance of a serious injury occuring when your young, and no kid wants that to happen to them ever

apparently they want more kids falling out of trees and almost breaking their necks, or getting a lot of wood chips or sharp objects jammed through the chin like i did when i was 4 from stuff like that, instead of less kids almost killing themselves and getting hurt badly

but its the media, they don't really think, they just blame blame blame scapegoats all the time, sometimes their right, most of the time, their wrong about that kind of stuff

zombieman3421

Well, because of this shocking news, my children will never play video games! I can't have my children falling out of bed now, can I?

TheCleaningGuy

WOW. Now which smart genius did they get to somehow connect video games with less tree climbing and then in effect making kids weaker? A bozo I tell you.

turbofreak

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if less kids in 2007 needed medical assistance than before, couldn't that stand to reason children are getting tougher and more resilient to tree falls?

The bed falls can be explained by degrading quality in bed construction and now-lacking safety features.

Xiedo

That's one hell of a way to spin a story. So video games are bad because they're making kids weaker, because they fall out of trees less?

Why don't we look at it this way: video games make kids smarter, so they don't fucking climb trees they could potentially fall out of and need to be sent to the emergency room. How's that for spin?

Captain Impulse

@Bal-Cleric:

Please fix that typo god damn, colitical, what was I thinking, shoot me now. It's meant to be a 'p' ok. Political.

Bal-Cleric

Fear Leads to Anger, Anger Leads to Hate, Hate leads to...

CoinSlot

Falling out of a tree has a higher chance of killing someone than any video game I've ever played. That and I've never actually seen a video game hurt someone unless that person happens to punch the TV screen out of frustration.
The real enemy in all of this is gravity!

Seturon

Maybe all the gaming improves their cooridination and makes them better tree climbers.

sobjw

Maybe it's because colitical correctness has gone mad and cut down trees in our play grounds and that parents are so protective of children because of all the pedos, yes the Daily Mail will always tell you of the pedos, they are everywhere apparently, anyway the parents wont let their kids outside, hence the term 'cotton wool kids' that's been coined for this generation.

I honestly would just like to state that maybe we have evolved, devolved even and are much better at climbing trees than the 'noobs' of 99.

As for the bed falls, this is also easily explained, there were more monkeys in the bed, and the little one said ... roll over.

Bal-Cleric

@Tulkamir: Smarter because of their video games! Video games save lives! Huzzah!

Ra on the A-Team

It's the Daily Mail... This is a paper that supported Oswald Mosley and his army of Facists. A paper that supported the nazi party right up to 1939.

I don't take a single thing that is says seriously.

SPni

How do they know kids aren't just being more careful than they were 7 years ago? Correlation does not always implie causality

smuckersisgood

And of course, the increase of tree related incedents can't be because of the increase in population.

epicbeefs

So... kids are getting smarter and not falling out of trees as much?

Tulkamir

Fuck the Daily Mail and everything it stands for.

So "games", because that's the only logical reason, have resulted in fewer children going to hospital.

Perhaps I'm in a minority, but surely that's a good thing?

Meldy

Yes! Of course! The children can't climb trees as well! And we all know that this valuable skill is needed in almost any future job. Such as a Dentist, Doctor, Delivery man, Store clerk, and lumberjack...
Especially dentist!

Down with video games! Every child should have a tree in his room, not a 360!

Kaemon

Wow people find a new way to complain about something. Someone falls from a tree would be a good thing because insurance companies save money well i think thats how it works. Either way i prefer mountain climbing or hiking to tree climbing.

Shindokie: Read my Messages

Video games are the Debble

Rockwallaby

Really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one aren't we...

akashhhhh

So they want kids to get hurt from falling off trees?

Fascinating!

Derkomai

sooo they are saying Gaming is taking millions of dollars out of the hands of health care workers and why we're slowly going into a recession? and destroying life as we know it

Bleentastic sees bandwagon and jumps

Because they'd rather see you paralyzed than playing video games.

Thanks for looking out, UK Government!

simpleandpink

This is the greatest spin on a statistic in human history.

DiscipleofJamzy

I never got to climb trees when I was a kid. "Tree Climbing 64" was probably one of my favorite games though.

William "Killer" Shatner

I live in the city we don't have tree's, games keep me from getting run over by the bus.

pokebud

I didn't know 'tree falls' and 'bed falls' were proper medical terms. Learned!

I won't argue with the numbers but still am not against games. My recommendation to the good people at... Daily Mail?... is to report on some more tabloid-worthy material. Who in the world would pay money for this rubbish?

Neer'mo

@Fyren: Total cosign.

My younger brother plays games all the time. On the DS or on the PC or whatever. Kids don't bother to read books or comics or even go outside to play often. They'd rather stay home and play Guitar Hero. And obviously there's nothing wrong with that, just that the balance is all wrong.

reddevil3

I nearly broke my back from falling from a tree when I was 10. That was the last time I climbed a tree. This is stupid as hell.

StealthMaster86

This is assuming we even have trees anymore right? Since, we cut them down, and build road with which we drive cars, shop, go to school, the store, go on dates, see sports, go to buy that power consuming TV we needed. Yeah real bad. Society should be blamed, not games.

ThatsMrOffDutyNinja

@ManjiKengo: Oh and if less kids are falling out of tree's less kids will be breaking themselves which i hear is a side effect from falling.
Not being sarcastic at all
Oh and TheCleaningGuy you are a terrible terrible person for thinking that.

GUNDAM-RX-78-2

Wow . . . you know, the best way to check common sense is to say something in a crowd. Try mentioning these results to common people. If you get weird looks, then ehh you may want to ram your head into said trees a few times.

Aiwokote

@Alex_Mexico: It stands for Accident and Emergency, I think the American equivalent is ER.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about anything the Daily Mail Says, no one takes it seriously, it's the favourite newspaper of reactionary middle class white English racists.
90% of their stories are about Immigrants, Princess Diana, or falling house prices.

Cruithne

so by better parenting and keeping your kids out of the hospital, our society is actually getting weaker?
sure, lets all go back to being barbarians hitting our kids and letting them experience extreme pain and we will all end up strong and healthy like Conan

sander_dutch

Less kids falling out of trees may mean that many fewer kids not being killed by falling out of trees, and hence, as the saying goes, growing stronger.

However, it also means that many fewer families that have to deal with medical bills for broken arms, legs, and what-have-you from these incidents. And fewer children who miss out or fall behind in classes due to these injuries.

And sweet Jesus, if kids falling out of trees is so important to you, it's not like you can't just toss them out yourself. They're kids! Small, dumb, perfect for throwing.

UltimatePancakeSensation

lol, Harsh.

Detha

can someone iluminate me and define what does A&E stand for?

Alex_Mexico

Does anyone climb trees anymore?

And did they think that it could just be over protective parents?

Ryumeka

I'll add another one: playing video games leads to better decision making ability.

Infinitum

*bangs head against desk*
wait arn't these the same guys that "supposedly" wanted stories about how video game ruined our lives?

Jesterhead369

So violence and activity is blamed on games? Lack of violence and activity is blamed on games?

God, I want to be employed by these places just so I can say weird shit like:

"People that eat turkey sandwiches are down.

This lends credence to the groups trying to get vegetarian menus replaced."

Black-Dog-Howls

@duckmouth:
Yup, I'd rather read the Sun than the Mail. Sure you have to put up with all the celebrity "news" that ends up there but it's still a more worthwhile read than the Mail. While I never read it before if I could help it after I read a few issues of Private Eye I started actively avoiding the paper altogether.

Odin

@UltimatePancakeSensation:
This is Britain, we don't have to deal with the fee's. Just the time off school, which really is a bonus for most children.

Odin

@SPni: And they are still fascist now. I don't know how thet get away with their naked racism. And the people that read this shite probably think they are better than the readers of The Sun or The Star... They're not even better than readers of The Sport for Christ's sake.

duckmouth

Bloody lies. There's less tree climbing accidents because in this country you can't climb tree's anymore. Unless it's in your own garden you get some health and safety nut run up shouting about how it's dangerous.

Considering the amount of comments that get made on TV about stuff like this I'm surprised the mail even bothered to try and make games a scapegoat. Well it is the Mail, and they are all journalistic hacks.

Odin

This one actually made me lol because of how dumb it is!

eskimo-bob

@UltimatePancakeSensation: So what happens when the kid that didn't die is crippled for life and has to blow on a tube to make the chair go "WEEEEE"? Did those damn tree climbing huggers ever think of that?

This just in! Daily Mail wants your children to be crippled for life!

Black-Dog-Howls

Bah! Easy fixed. Set up a treehouse with a trapdoor floor and connect a console output to the latch. Every time your beloved loses a life in Mario Galaxy, or loses a Pokemon battle, the floor gives way.

Your kids will not only become more resilient to pain, but they will become kickass gamers.

DONAR

@CoinSlot:

falling from trees

juscallmeweasel

I'm impressed that the Daily Mail is now starting to get an international realisation of how appalling it is.

The Daily Mail epitomises everything that is poor journalism and militant knee jerk responses to non-news stories. They do have excellent soduko though.

roogi

@Cruithne:
thx :)

Alex_Mexico

These are obviously early signs of the upcoming apocalypse

BenignMuffin

Oh, give me a break with this faulty logic used in this article. Being a kid nowadays is much different than it was in 1999. The media blows any threat into a huge crisis. Helicopter parents hover around children, all but wrapping their children in bubble wrap to prevent anything from harming their precious little snowflake. Back when I was a kid, we just 'went out to play' as in walked out the front door to go wander around the neighborhood to find something fun to do, play in the woods, or hang out at a friends house for a while. Now, kids have no autonomy, play dates must be arranged, children must be watched 24/7/365. Anything that might hurt a child must be made safe. Being a kid involves getting scraped up from time to time. the past few decades have been getting worse and worse, and we are in my opinion making a new generation. Instead of GenX, or GenY, we now are creating Generation Wuss.

Norsehawk

OR kids who play games are less likly to fall only because games teach them to climb a tree and stay there...and if they do fall they know how to land it..snake style ;)

..score one for gaming :D

Pumba512

Dont get me started on the daily mail... oh and Ashcradft i think you'll find the UK has one of the lowest unemploymnet rates it has had in years and crime...well it depends who you believe on that, govt. says its falling people on the street says its raising but they would wouldnt they lol

SSJ4_Macd

Ah, the Daily Mail. May you never cease to occupy the ground between 'ridiculous' and 'sheer irrelevance'.

I agree with what others have said, I think the lack of climbable trees is the major problem here. All the trees I climbed as a kid have been knocked down because houses were built nearby, and those remaining are too weak and small to climb. I honestly can't think of a single public climbable tree in my hometown now.

Also, about the increased bedfalls: I'm assuming these involved bunk-beds, since a fall from an ordinary single really won't be that painful. Have they considered that, given population increases since 1999, space is at a bit of a premium now and therefore space-saving measures such as bunk-beds are more necessary? Even if you only have one kid, you can get bunk-beds where the bottom bunk is actually a wardrobe/desk combo.

Next week on the Daily Mail: video game sales have gone up, cancer has gone up. VIDEO GAMES CAUSE CANCER. Even if your child does not play games, just seeing the box-art in a store could cause a myeloma! We have numbers!

AmorphousSta

@phicaluk:

Morlocks were in The Time Machine, weren't they? Damn.

phicaluk

Thanks to developing genetic modification technology, British children can now levitate. Simple.

My God, the Mail has scraped completely through the bottom of the journalistic barrel and is heading towards the Earth's core. Watch out for Morlocks now!

phicaluk

There is only one answer you need to this article:
Daily Mail.

That sums the whole thing up in just 2 words; also the "proof" is incredibly illogical.

Riotpoll

We demand Wii Ice Climber to combat this danger to mankind.

Asbestos_Underwear

"Good thing the UK Government isn't spending its time worrying about petty things like unemployment and crime. That'd be a major waste of effort."

They are worrying about all that other stuff. Bu you know what? Not raising a generation of degenerated fatheads? Pretty important, too.

Let's face it, children nowadays are screwed. They can't explore anything. They can't walk to school, parents drive them. Play outside unattended? No way. They have filters on their computers so they can't see anything bad, and GPS devices in their watches to they can't be lost (pretty soon, they'll be implanted). Children can't make mistakes anymore, explore stuff, do something wrong. And if you can't do anything wrong, you can't learn from your mistakes.

By brother actually cut off part of his finger when he was playing outside as a kid (unfortunately, I wasn't there to witness it, but I heard he was pretty cool about it, bringing the finger to our parents and explaining to them that them that it would probably be a good idea to go see a doctor at this point). So my parents drove him to a hospital, and they reattached the finger. Would my brother have been better off if he had not been allowed to play outside unattended and had thus (possibly) never managed to cut off his finger? Or perhaps cutting off a finger - which is probably one of the worse things that can happen to you - isn't actually as bad as not being allowed to do anything wrong and thus learn from your mistakes?

L_K_M

The Daily Mail really is a rag. Nobody listens to it anyway, so it's not a huge deal to be honest.

akwinters

Alternatively....kids are better at climbing trees this year OR there are less treesto climb cause they keep cutting them down to build fucking housing estates on them which noone can afford to buy cause the economy is fucked?

teeps1981

Heh, we're studying history at the moment and the Daily Mail pops up many many times:

1. Supported Hitler Pre-WW2

2. Opposed Women's Suffrage

3. Printed letters during WW1 from people demanding that 'those damn conchies (conscientious objectors) should be thrown out of Britain!'

So they haven't got the BEST track record

In other news: as video games become more popular, the population of Britain is growing rapidly!

Video games obviously encourage BREEDING and the arch-nemisis of the Daily Mail: IMMIGRATION!

evilboy

I grew up someplace with few if any climbable trees. Mostly conifers with needles too thick to climb easily, and even those that weren't didn't have limbs strong enough to hold a person. Oh, and most trees were too small to climb regardless.

So I played video games.

TechnoDestructo

Sae Trees...play games

teeps1981

Or perhaps video games are made out of trees...

phicaluk

apologise for my above language....having a bad day!

teeps1981

What a crock of shite!

Oh, and kudos on the 'Trace of Nuts' heading!

XenonXylophone

Dialy Mail headline tommorrow = Nintendo Wii causes British Borders to overflow.

"The immigraion crisis in Britain may be directly linked to the rising popularity of video games, in particular the Nintendo Wii" scientist said earlier this week.

Doctor M D Upname, a research for a company noone has ever heard of and may or may not exist has shown a correlation, using a piece of graph paper and a crayon, that as the number of Wii's sold in Britain has increased so has the number of immigrants.

teeps1981

So games are evil because fewer children have been going to the hospital after falling out of trees?

Strange Bedfellows

I'd like to point people to this link - people (almost) getting ASBOs for climbing trees! I am all for climbing, but I find it hypocritical that the government wants us outside and active, yet local councils and police so readily stop us!

le-parkour.net: ASBO Warning for Tree Training

D-SMP

@evilboy:
Heh, we're studying history at the moment and the Daily Mail pops up many many times:

1. Supported Hitler Pre-WW2

2. Opposed Women's Suffrage

3. Printed letters during WW1 from people demanding that 'those damn conchies (conscientious objectors) should be thrown out of Britain!'

I hate the daily mail as much as anyone mate but it hink you'll find most people supported hitler before world war 2 prob up to about 36-37 people became more vocal againts hime even this it was more of a "oh you really shouldnt do that). And with your other points i think you'll find those sentiments were echoed throughout most of the country anyways history's a great subject studied it myself and still an avid learner keep up the hard work!

SSJ4_Macd

I was part of the Donkey Kong Country Generation. We learned how to climb trees like champs.

Inhert

So, here's a thought... don't games improve hand-eye coordination? If so, maybe the same amount of kids are climbing trees, but because of better reflexes, not falling out of them and hurting themselves...

I love it when people confuse correlation with causation.

Evil J

Well, there is less falling out of stuff overall which I hope would be a good thing. Not to mention fewer kids climbing on trees and knocking of branching/pulling off leaves = healthier trees.

Pezdispenser

Less kids falling out of trees and going to the hospital. Isn't that a GOOD thing?

KM91

Maybe there's less trees?

TheHun

But with due respect, gaming teaches us to attempt a DOUBLE JUMP

RPGr

But what about the kids that fall out of trees and don't receive medical attention? Maybe the kids are just getting tougher and capable of dealing with tree falls on their own better... Hah, toilet paper rag didn't think of that now did they.

Aesteval

The Daily Mail has exactly one use, and that is toilet paper. It certainly isn't worth buying to read.

Overlord44

They are worried about unemployment. That's why they gave the worthless sods who produced this report a job.

dren

this is probably the most bizarre angle I've seen yet

Hoboman725

obviously games are giving children better dexterity which has saved 100's from falling out of said trees. (rolls eyes).

jrhawk42

What a garbage conclusion. A real statistic would be to ask how many kids are climbing trees and compare them to how many kids are falling out of them. It is possible with these facts to say nearly enything:

Videogames improve agility and hand eye coordination so much that less children have had accidents falling out of trees.

Or better yet:

Environmental issues show less trees living in urban and suburban areas thus children are not learning the important tree climbing skills they need.

I guess it's a good cause anyway. Kids should be outside when it's nice. Anyway, I've got to go. I'm heading up to my treehouse now to play some Crackdown.

Hagame

Wow this is a great example of correlation vs. causation from your statistics 101 class. This argument is so erroneous and absurd I'm actually amazed they ran it. Just off the top of my head, here are a couple of reasons why this issue is too overdetermined to attribute to one cause.

Perhaps there are less trees to climb due to population growth and urbanization. Perhaps this generation has a higher IQ than the last one and is not stupid enough to fall off of a tree in the first place. Perhaps the costs of health care in regard to time and money and economic downturn from the 90's have made people less inclined to go to the hospital and report a tree fall. And PERHAPS, Aliens have been secretly sending transmissions warning children not to climb trees.

All of those are just as valid as the idiotic connection this article makes. Is it even clear that the same kids who go outside and play sports and climb trees are the ones that stay in and play games. I'm not saying they aren't, just that these people have no F&*(^&( idea how to back that claim up. This is a new low of anti-gaming alarmist journalism.

pot3ntial2suck

@dren:

No, that would conflict with their love of free-market capitalism. The sad fact is that their is a thriving market for this dreck.

phicaluk

I agree with the Mail here. To be honest video games have given parents an excuse to keep their children away from the hazards of falling down and being outside but, in the long run, have made them a weaker generation, I suppose.

When I was growing up I'd play Sega when it was raining, these days I'm indoors 90% of the time 'prawning noobs' even when it's sunny.

If you find 'climbing trees' too much of a joke to take the point seriously -- as many of you have from your witty comments -- you can pretty much replace it with any hobby you had while growing up.

Fallible

Everyone's going on about disinfecting doorknobs (which makes children's immune systems weaker), healthy food is getting more and more expensive while junk food is dirt cheap, children are being taught that nothing is their fault because everything they could ever do wrong is now a psychological condition and these fucking morons are worried about video games making kids climb less trees.

As if their overprotective (when it's convenient) parents would allow that.

Koztah

Has anyone explored the possibility that maybe kids are just getting better at climbing trees, and thus falling out of them less?

Nowell

Let's assume that it's true and more kids are playing video games instead of climbing trees. How do we know that it's the video games affecting the tree climbing and not the other way around?

Having grown up in a mildly urban setting, there weren't all too many trees to climb. They were all either too small, having just been planted by the beautification dept recently, or too big, having any branches lower than ten feet removed. I would have loved to climb a tree once or twice in my childhood but modernization kind of made that impossible. So I played video games instead.

Rubiximus

Is it the games resulting in weaker kids or the warning labels we put on everything or the over protective highly litigatious parents who prevent them from doing or experiencing anything for themselves?

placebofud

As far as my experience goes, my younger brothers are huge into gaming but are all probably stronger than I was at their age. When they're not gaming they are, in fact, climbing trees, playing hockey and baseball (outside, IRL) among other things that kids and teenagers do like getting in trouble.

These researchers are meatheads.

amazinglarry

So I'm from the NES generation there fore Im stronger than the xbox 360 generation of kids? That or maybe cause I'm older and I can run your ass over with my car. You decide.

Derigor

Wow, just wow.
So suddenly, the fact that children aren't getting hurt as much as they were in the past is a bad thing, and not only that, games are to blame.

And according to that article, worried moms and dads out there should just go to their kids and say something like: "Hay, stop playing those games, and go out get some injuries you sissies".

What a pile of horsesh*t.
Kids don't need to go to the hospital to be strong.
Shure some kids need to do more exercises and go out a lot, but that doesn't imply they have to get injuries.

Spanking and punishing physically is a no-no, but making them fall off trees would make them stronger?

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

I sugest that the UK governement burn all the those leaffy bastards. BURN THEM, BURN THEM ALL!!! MUAHAHAHA!! Now the country, then the WORLD!!

Now for real, couldnt they think that there is more children overall climbing trees? I bet that they dont even have that kind of number...

Gazp

I thought it was because the trees children used to climb on have since been cut down out of fears that there may be child predators hiding inside them. Hmm..

XanderSan

Is should read: "Hysterical parents chase their kids out of trees".

Most parents love it when their kids play games because it keeps them inside and "safe". Who knows *what* evil will happen when your kids get outside. Maybe [gasp] a scraped knee!

Parents are way too overprotective about things that kids need to learn themselves. Here are five of them: [www.ted.com]

Nekura20x6

@Fallible:
"Based on a shred of anecdotal evidence, kids these days have different hobbies than I did when I was young. Therefore they are weak!"
Not so good, dude.

ZinkO: The Game (the kind you just lost)

@ZinkO: The Game (the kind you just lost): Problem I have with that is that you've taken what I've said and come out with, well, something that I didn't - or, at least, didn't mean.

Then again, of course I'd find some criticism being that I'm agreeing with the message the British Government is trying to send.

It'd be interesting to find if anyone here has actually read the article. Anyway, the message the campaign is aiming to promote - and not by the article - is that Computer games, while good, aren't going to teach or prepare you for everything you need to know and that interaction with the big wide world may just be something that's vital in developing oneself.

Fallible

There is no need to look at the tree climbing injuries figures to know that kids go out less. Video Games are more popular now than they were back 99/00. Video Games is an indoors activity, you don't need to be a genious to realise that. And probably your readers know Sarah Harris.

Now, we here all know that Video Games = Bad is a hot topic nowadays. You found those figures that God only knows why they even exist, thought it was a perfect chance to mention the topic Video Games = Bad on your article, that way your readership would increase.

That is a tactic repeated too many times for me to count by the mass media, you thought you could use it too.

Don't worry Sarah, here we know just how pitifull you are. We still wonder why we even bother talking about you.

LaughingCrow

Kids probably would have been indoors last year anyway whether they had videogames or not, because we had nothing but rain last year in Britain so this doesn't surprise me at all.

Owenr22

"But as the lives of "the Xbox generation" have become dominated by sedentary activities, the likelihood of them having an outdoor accident has plummeted."

And...this is bad?

...This can't be for real. Tell me this site is like the Onion. Please.

SuperMaxZero

The solution? A tree climbing game. Win win.

edgeblade