[B]New statistics have been released that apparently thumb their nose at video games while giving the thumbs up to outdoor activities.[/B]

Thes statistics, [URL=http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2825896/Number-of-kids-injured-playing-computer-games-soars.html]obtained by The Sun[/URL], show that repetitive stress thumb injuries are becoming more common thanks to the increase in children playing console video games. Those same numbers reflect a decrease in injuries from kids falling out of trees or being injures skaing, skateboarding or skiing.

The Sun tracked down a sad sociology professor:

[INDENT]Sociology professor Frank Furedi said sadly: "This fall in what would be perceived as traditional growing-up accidents is bad news for childhood. The digital bedroom culture is growing all the time at the expense of the outdoors. Doing physically challenging outdoor activities teaches children how to deal with risk - and they learn about their own strengths and weaknesses.[/INDENT]This comes only a month after The Sun ran an article saying that [URL=http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2777532/Computer-games-can-help-kids-improve-their-brains-researchers-say.html]video games were good for kids[/URL].

Now, you can do anything you want to with numbers, and I may be making an excuse for games, but it is possible that increased urbanization has severely reduced the number of climbable trees over the years, and an increase in safety gear and education has reduced the number of skating and skateboard-related injuries. Add in that the number of video game consoles in homes has increased exponentially in the last several years, it seems obvious that the number of stress injuries would also increase.

The key analysis should be if the percentage increase in injuries corresponds with the percentage increase in the number of consoles in homes.

[url=http://www.gameculture.com/2010/01/28/repetitive-stress-injuries-falling-out-tree-injuries-down]More...[/url]