Gaming does NOT cause rickets - official

The professor quoted by last week's national newspaper headlines linking video games to rickets is a hero. Why? Because he's now said this: "We do not [suggest] that gaming causes rickets"

You see, no amount of tabloid manipulation can alter those words. They are clean, crisp... true.

Dr Timothy Cheetham, Consultant/Senior Lecturer, at Newcastle University and at the Royal Victoria Infirmary helped write the report from which those headlines were born.

The study found that many kids were not getting enough Vitamin D from sunlight. And a lack of vitamin D can cause rickets.

However, talking to video games analyst Nicholas Lovell (doing a national newspaper journalist's job in his spare time, it seems), Cheetham said:

"I understand 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!"

In a similar email to games-supporting MP (yes, they exist) Tom Watson, Cheetham's fellow professor, Simon Pearce, who also contributed to the report, went one further.

He said: "No we really didn't do a study to show that, or say that Gaming causes rickets. It was a classic piece of dodgy lazy journalism, taking three words out of PA's hyped-up version of our press release."

Sweet music, hey readers?

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