25 May 2011

Katy wants you to turn off the Xbox

| johnboy
Join the conversation
28
unplug and play logo

Chief Minister Gallagher has always had a tendency to mothering the public (put a jumper on, wash your hands, blow).

Now she wants to take charge of the children too and get them out in the fresh air instead of sitting in from of “electronic entertainment”.

“The incidences of overweight and obesity in children has doubled since 1995, prompting this initiative that encourages parents and carers to manage screen time for their children,” the Health Minister said.

“The new Unplug + Play campaign aims to increase awareness of children’s engagement with electronic entertainment and highlights the need to limit use to no more than two hours each day.”

“In addition, children need at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day for good health according to the Australian Physical Activity Recommendations for 5 -12 year olds,” the Chief Minister said.

Preliminary unpublished data from the 2009 ACT Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey indicates that one third of Year 6 children living in the ACT watch TV or use the computer for more than two hours each weekday.

Spending more than two hours watching television can be associated with a higher risk of overweight or obesity, poor fitness, increased social problems and increased aggressive behaviour.

There’s going to be an advertising campaign in “newspapers and magazines as well as on ACTION buses, and local shopping centres and cinemas”.

Not, we note, in electronic media. Which is a shame as that seems to be where the target market it.

Join the conversation

28
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest
Holierthanthou2:14 pm 26 May 11

Great work! It must be remembered these initiatives aren’t supposed to be a silver bullet, they are part of a raft of measures the govt and other bodies persue to improve health. Like building ubercool skate parks and nuking maccas from orbit.

Pommy bastard said :

There are a great number of sporting and activity groups run for kids of all ages in Canberra. My kids have benefited greatly from the Scouts, little athletics, and basketball to name but three. Instead of chastising people, why not put money into the voluntary sector in order for them to publicise their works and activities better….

Or does that take too much influence over our lives away from Big Sister?

+1

Maybe they could also find ways to increase the participation in these type of activities, for example by subsidising the organisers more so they can offer a discount for low-income families (if they don’t already) and offer more options to have this organised at the school, so it’s easier for kids of busy parents to participate.

Also, I would’ve supported a government organised campaign urging parents to not drive their kids everywhere. So many kids get driven to school for example, when they can usually easily walk or ride. That’s half an hour of healthy excercise they miss out on right there.

And maybe schools should be told that rain never hurt any child (and parents should be alerted to the existence of rain coats) and they don’t need to stay in all day when there’s a bit of a drizzle.

All would be more effective than this ‘drugs are bad’ type of campaign!

Bahahahahahaahahahhahahahaaha

This keeps getting better and better. Sitting increases your risk of heart disease. So you go from 0.003% to 0.005%. Standing up burns more calories because you generally move around while standing up. That’s the hard scientific evidence from the studies you’ve linked to…awesome, I’m overwhelmed by their brilliance.

Yeah that’s SCIENCE!! Believe all the lies and statistics you want. Eating broccoli causes cancer…

http://godplaysdice.blogspot.com/2007/09/broccoli-causes-lung-cancer-or-why-most.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118972683557627104.html

Again I think your impression of risk versus mine is vastly different and to relate this back to the OP games are becoming increasinly associated with movement via Wii, PS3 Move, Xbox Kinect

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201048/6489/PlayStation-Move-shifts-4-1-million-unit-sales
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/News/250751,xbox-kinect-breaking-records-worldwide.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_wars

This will keep me amused all day.

http://www.diet-blog.com/07/why_do_healthy_athletes_die_of_heart_attacks.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_factor

Sleaz274 said :

Sitting is a high risk activity?!?!?!?!?!!??!?!?!?!?!?!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahha
Hahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahha

That’s f***ing hilarious. I presume you entirely made that up and are just pulling my leg.

Try commuting/travelling on a motorbike, scuba diving, football, overseas travel, joining the army…

I think you have mistaken the word risk there for something just outside of being entombed in bubble wrap for your entire life. As I pointed out increasingly with movement technology games are no longer played sitting down further causing my hysterics at your post.

omg hahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahhahaha

You’re a retard.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071119130734.htm
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/725721
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/21/3169625.htm
http://news.peacefmonline.com/health/201002/37646.php
http://scitechie.com/05/sitting-increases-risk-of-death-upto-40-infographics/
http://www.emaxhealth.com/3275/jobs-require-sitting-increase-risk-death
etc ad nauseum

Sitting is a high risk activity?!?!?!?!?!!??!?!?!?!?!?!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahha
Hahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahha

That’s f***ing hilarious. I presume you entirely made that up and are just pulling my leg.

Try commuting/travelling on a motorbike, scuba diving, football, overseas travel, joining the army…

I think you have mistaken the word risk there for something just outside of being entombed in bubble wrap for your entire life. As I pointed out increasingly with movement technology games are no longer played sitting down further causing my hysterics at your post.

omg hahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahhahaha

Holierthanthou9:43 am 26 May 11

They can have my Special Edition Halo 3 ODST wireless controller when they prise it from my cold dead (and slightly smelly from poor hygiene) fingers.

Except, I don’t have an xbox, but if they come for my NES I do have a NES Zapper.

Good initiative, hopefully it gives good returns in terms of improved health and subsequent productivity and reduced health care costs.

WonderfulWorld11:12 pm 25 May 11

Origin was on, just finished, kids have watched sport until 10pm after eating KFC, they are both under seven but in primary school and when they got home from school (by car driven solely by their 17 yr old L plate cousin) played Xbox from 330 until 8pm, they were supervised again by over 18 cousins. Tucker was on a bean bag in front of TV with their fingers, the bloody KFC forgot to include hand wipes (again) so they wiped them on their jumpers. We wash them once a week so that is OK. We all could not eat cause the younger get to eat first and there wasn’t none left

This is a sad and difficult circumstance of many. My message would be “lets help get others get out of the welfare and poverty cycle. These kids eat bad, play bad, learn bad and take strenght to an amazing level when they break the cycle, by getting something out of their education and making more for themselves.

Yes society has fat kids and slack parents. Who is going to make the first stance on the Oz chess board, its not going to be the Chief Minister for Canberra. It won’t happen in Australia anytime soon. We do not have Obama, Thatcher, Ghandi or Mandela.

NOT!

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd6:42 pm 25 May 11

lol just lol

Pommy bastard5:35 pm 25 May 11

There are a great number of sporting and activity groups run for kids of all ages in Canberra. My kids have benefited greatly from the Scouts, little athletics, and basketball to name but three. Instead of chastising people, why not put money into the voluntary sector in order for them to publicise their works and activities better….

Or does that take too much influence over our lives away from Big Sister?

johnboy said :

The question is whether the video games are the problem or parents using food as a pacifier.

Although I’ll concede they could both be part of the problem.

I think the problem is just the parents. Good parenting involves monitoring your children’s’ activities and controlling how much time they are spending on them. Video games were a “sometimes” activity when I was younger, and I think it should be the same now. I see so many children with Nintendo DSs stuck to their faces every spare moment. I think that’s just unhealthy physically and mentally.

Sleaz274 said :

Wii, PS3 Move, Xbox Kinect growing in popularity and increasing gamers numbers considerably, Wii in particular for the demographic you’re talking of. All require active movement often in a vigorous manner and increasingly require fine motor skills.

Attention politicians of Australia the demonising of games and gamers is pointless, join the next century please where games and gaming consoles will become the primary entertainment industry displacing books, TV, movies and music.

Attention parents: Stop feeding your kids crap filled full of processed junk made in laboratories that the human body was never designed to process, with added salt, with added sugar or sugar like substances. Make meals of lean proteins, good animal fats with lots of fruit and vegetables. Hungry kids eat before you all start whinging and bitching about how hard it is to feed kids. If they aren’t hungry then don’t make them eat. Don’t fill up the gap later with snacks foods.

That is why they are fat and diabetes is increasingly common. Not TVs or computer games.

There is quite a solid body of evidence that sitting is a high-risk activity, even controlling for other factors such as activity level, diet and weight. So this means that if you and I are the same weight, eat the same and do the same amount of exercise, but I spend more time actually seated than you do, I am at higher risk of things like diabetes and heart disease. It seems to me this is one of the issues associated with high screen use (although there are others).

Although, I have to agree that food intake is critical. It’s also fairly well established that many people (particularly children) have such a high energy intake they couldn’t burn it off if they tried.

Just because you missed out as a kid and turned out ok, there is no shame in trying to do better for the next generation. You can put your head in the sand all you want but it won’t change the fact that we are growing a generation of fatties.

The question is whether the video games are the problem or parents using food as a pacifier.

Although I’ll concede they could both be part of the problem.

futto said :

Up until a few years ago, i never cared about the quality of the parks and play areas but now with two young boys, i have become an expert at scouting out fun parks to take them.

Many of the parks in South Canberra are in a state of disrepair. Fadden Pines has half the play area fenced off and has been for over 18 months. Gowrie is being rebuilt now but at the moment is a big pile of mud. I have been to Weston Park. To be honest, it is pretty dirty and sad. Most of the water features don’t work.

Despite this i thought the parks here were ok here but after traveling to Melbourne and the NSW north coast over Easter, i was blown away over how awesome the parks are.

If the minister is serious about getting kids outside, you really have to setup the parks to compete with the Xbox and other entertainment. Kids like cool parks, with REAL equipment, especially for the older kids where a spring loaded frog seat or a swing isn’t enough to hold their attention for more than a few minutes.

P.S Does anyone know of a good Canberra website that lists all the parks? I might not be looking hard enough.

When I was a kid a bike, footy and an oval was enough to keep us amused for an entire weekend. In summer it was a bus pass, a bike and an Olympic pool….with maybe a footy again thrown in. There were none of these ‘parks’ bar the basic swing set and slide.

Kids also need to learn how to make their own fun

magiccar9 said :

I quote the first paragraph of this article saying

“Chief Minister Gallagher has always had a tendency to mothering the public (put a jumper on, wash your hands, blow).”

Um… anyone else raising an eyebrow as to what she wants us to do?

Into the tissue, like mum’s tell their young kids wot to do.

Pommy bastard said :

The epitome of the “nanny” state, Katy comes for yoru children. Sit up straight at the back, stop talking and pay attention!

I’m no fan of the nanny state, but this doesn’t qualify. Telling you what to do isn’t the same as legislating that you must do it, or that you can’t do it.

And there’s nothing wrong with “Sit up straight at the back, stop talking and pay attention!”

I quote the first paragraph of this article saying

“Chief Minister Gallagher has always had a tendency to mothering the public (put a jumper on, wash your hands, blow).”

Um… anyone else raising an eyebrow as to what she wants us to do?

futto I agree. With youngsters myself I have noticed that parks in NSW are far bigger, newer and better maintained than in Canberra. There are parks here that havent been touched for 20 years (eg in Lyneham). And the big playgrounds – like Kambah – have become shrivelled ghosts of their former selves.

That said, we do have lots of treed areas to walk around, like our various mountains. Its not quite the same though, you cant duck down for 1/2 hr to meet up with a friend.

I’m not aware of a website that lists all the parks – I scoured the maps for the park symbol and just drove over to them to check them out (northside)

I dont really think lack of exercise is the key issue for kids – I have lived in places where kids get hardly any exercise (Asia) and they are still pretty thin (that said, I am all for exercise and it clearly has some impact and a greater impact as the kids age). Its what they eat – and you can notice, unfortunately, a fairly solid correlation between a schools socio-economic score on NAPLAN and the size of the kids at the school (the higher the NAPLAN score the thinner the kids).

Wii, PS3 Move, Xbox Kinect growing in popularity and increasing gamers numbers considerably, Wii in particular for the demographic you’re talking of. All require active movement often in a vigorous manner and increasingly require fine motor skills. Attention politicians of Australia the demonising of games and gamers is pointless, join the next century please where games and gaming consoles will become the primary entertainment industry displacing books, TV, movies and music.

Attention parents: Stop feeding your kids crap filled full of processed junk made in laboratories that the human body was never designed to process, with added salt, with added sugar or sugar like substances. Make meals of lean proteins, good animal fats with lots of fruit and vegetables. Hungry kids eat before you all start whinging and bitching about how hard it is to feed kids. If they aren’t hungry then don’t make them eat. Don’t fill up the gap later with snacks foods.

That is why they are fat and diabetes is increasingly common. Not TVs or computer games.

colourful sydney racing identity3:28 pm 25 May 11

Chop71 said :

colourful sydney racing identity said :

And I would like Katy to turn off the pokies, but as a fully owned subsiduary of the CFMEU/Tradies group I suspect that won’t happen.

Put “Get Out + Play” stickers on all Labor Club poker machines. Brilliant intitative.

Ah, mate, I love it!!!!

colourful sydney racing identity said :

And I would like Katy to turn off the pokies, but as a fully owned subsiduary of the CFMEU/Tradies group I suspect that won’t happen.

Put “Get Out + Play” stickers on all Labor Club poker machines. Brilliant intitative.

Up until a few years ago, i never cared about the quality of the parks and play areas but now with two young boys, i have become an expert at scouting out fun parks to take them.

Many of the parks in South Canberra are in a state of disrepair. Fadden Pines has half the play area fenced off and has been for over 18 months. Gowrie is being rebuilt now but at the moment is a big pile of mud. I have been to Weston Park. To be honest, it is pretty dirty and sad. Most of the water features don’t work.

Despite this i thought the parks here were ok here but after traveling to Melbourne and the NSW north coast over Easter, i was blown away over how awesome the parks are.

If the minister is serious about getting kids outside, you really have to setup the parks to compete with the Xbox and other entertainment. Kids like cool parks, with REAL equipment, especially for the older kids where a spring loaded frog seat or a swing isn’t enough to hold their attention for more than a few minutes.

P.S Does anyone know of a good Canberra website that lists all the parks? I might not be looking hard enough.

“The incidences of overweight and obesity in children has doubled since 1995, prompting this initiative that encourages parents and carers to manage screen time for their children”

We’re also setting a fantastic example to kids who are worried about their reading problems. Apparently you don’t need to be able to construct (or identify) grammatical sentences to become ACT Health Minister, or the Health Minister’s copy editor.

Pommy bastard2:49 pm 25 May 11

The epitome of the “nanny” state, Katy comes for yoru children. Sit up straight at the back, stop talking and pay attention!

Don’t really care about the source, but it’s a bloody good initiative. Could extend to children in their 20s, 30s and 40s too.

colourful sydney racing identity2:24 pm 25 May 11

And I would like Katy to turn off the pokies, but as a fully owned subsiduary of the CFMEU/Tradies group I suspect that won’t happen.

Not, we note, in electronic media. Which is a shame as that seems to be where the target market is

That’s where the kiddies are, though the actual target is probably parents of 5-12yos… although I suspect that parents letting kids make decisions about what to do with their time could be a contributing factor?

Now that ABC Kids is available pretty much all day, they might need to extend their target market downwards…

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.