An Article Calls the New Fitbit for Kids 'a Fat-Shaming Toy'
The Guardian – A new Fitbit wristband called Fitbit Ace has been launched for children over eight. It will feature “reminders” for them to get active, undertake family step-challenges and also monitor sleep patterns. Thankfully, the calorie-counting device found on normal Fitbits has been disabled, but is that enough?
Bearing in mind the UK’s child obesity problem – according to figures from NHS Direct, a third of children between two and 15 are overweight or obese – some people may feel that the Fitbit Ace could only be a boon. However, that’s debatable. Children are already bombarded with harmful messages about body image. Overweight kids are teased. Normal-sized girls feel that they should be on strict diets. Even young boys are succumbing to anorexia. Do children need what amounts to a “fat-shaming toy”? …
While the Fitbit Ace is monitoring physical progress, who is monitoring the child’s reactions and emotions? After all, motivating children to get fit is just one important aspect; another would be stopping them from going too far with what may feel like a new playground craze.
What may seem like a harmless motivational gimmick could lead an immature mind into disturbing, obsessive behaviour. Orthorexia (the type of anorexia that masks itself as a health and fitness obsession) is a very real issue that should not be encouraged in anybody, never mind children. The good news is that there are already devices widely available to encourage most children to be healthier and fitter – they’re called parents.
I have one incontrovertible belief that has never, ever been proven wrong, and it is this: There is nothing you can provide for kids that is so positive, such a pure good, that somebody, somewhere, won’t say it’s dangerous and will probably kill them.
Take, for instance, Pokemon Go. That was not a thing that was tearing kids and teenagers away from the basketball courts, the running tracks, the health food stores or their volunteer work at the veteran’s homes to go chase cartoon characters. It was getting them off their screens at home. It had them outside. Walking around. Going to parks. Personally interacting with one another. And it took maybe 72 hours from the time the app first launched before the media attention was all about the users who were getting robbed or got hit by cars because they were paying to much attention to their phones or whatever.
But this has been going on for as long as I can remember. It’s the big picture version of that story the local news covers every November: The Dangerous Christmas Toy Press Conference. The pieces that can be swallowed. The baby doll who’s head comes off to reveal the 12″ saw-bladed tactical Bowie knife underneath. The Nerf gun that is all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.
So now the latest target is a Fitbit for kids that encourages them to get off their asses and go burn some calories? That turns fitness into a challenge and activity into a game? This is what’s going to hurt them because it doesn’t monitor their “reactions and emotions?” How about instead we monitor their “reactions” to being embarrassed in gym class because they’re too fat to run or their “emotions” about needing insulin shots for their juvenile diabetes? And on the long list of “disturbing, obsessive behavior” I always worried about in my sons, health and fitness never ranked very high, I can promise you. But then again, their exercise came in forms like climbing on stuff at the playground, playing football and baseball, swimming, riding bikes, and about 100 other activities that the world has determined will kill entire generations if we don’t put an end to them. Immediately.
The one thing I will agree with from this article is that parents are the ones who should be in charge of their kids. Which is why I raised mine not to be bloated, unhealthy, lazy slobs. And to ignore preachy, judgmental, know-it-all social scientists who are terrified by every last thing that kids enjoy.