HHS HealthBeat (July 26, 2006)

Playing around with kids

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Kids love online games. Food companies love to sell food. What happens when the two are put together?

A Kaiser Family Foundation report calls it "advergames" – Internet games that amount to product placements. Researcher Elizabeth Moore of Notre Dame examined games that, for instance, let kids bowl with candies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Dr. Bill Dietz took part in a seminar as the report was released. Dietz says parents should realize the games could make the kids ask for the foods – whether or not parents want kids to have them.

Dietz also says playing a video game is not the same as playing. He studied this, looking at metabolic rates – the rates at which people burn calories.

"The metabolic rate while playing a video game is probably the metabolic rate associated with vigorous fidgeting." (six seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011