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Hundreds of Americans, bystanders injured playing video games

Mostly normal sofa-spuds, too, not Wii jiggy-gamers

Shocking news from America today, as it has been revealed by paediatricians there that playing video games is tremendously damaging to that nation's youth: not so much in terms of warping fragile little minds with scenes of graphic violence'n'nookie but in terms of actual, physical injuries.

No, really. According to research which will be presented later today at a paediatrics conference in San Francisco, the playing of video games can cause serious injuries both to players and bystanders.

According to the US National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, Americans sustained 696 "video game-related injuries" during the period 2004 to 2009. Some 92 of these were from Wii-style interactive capering-style setups, but somehow the remaining 604 wounds were sustained in more traditional couch-potato style scenarios. The mean age of those injured was 16.5, indicating that vidgame injuries are primarily a youth issue, though apparently individuals as old as 86 took some console-related damage.

According to a statement issued today by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), "bystander injuries occurred in both the interactive and the traditional groups with significantly more bystander injuries in the interactive group".

Official advice from study lead author Patrick O'Toole is that the horrific games-related bloodbath can only be stemmed by harsh measures.

"Children under the age of 10 should be supervised while video games are being played to prevent bystander injuries," says the doc. ®

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