"Children's exercise policy is child cruelty"

From the BBC:

The national policy to get UK children to do more exercise amounts to mass "child cruelty", the British Journal of Electronic Games Retailers says.

An editorial in the magazine says successive governments have implemented a comprehensive national policy of forcing children to undertake physical activities which most find physically and emotionally painful, not to mention pointless.

By contrast, a sedentary lifestyle in front of a computer or TV screen hones hand to eye coordination, improves reaction times and helps children to bond closely with their friends and classmates by taking part in multi-player games online, it argues...

Co-author Dr Richard Weiler, a consultant in sport and exercise medicine at University College London and club doctor at West Ham football club said:

"You don't need to have been in my job for long to realise that sport is pretty much a guarantee of long term and irreversible damage to the body.

"Which is why animals left to their own devices don't play much sport.

"There has been a persistent failure from this government and former governments to meet children's basic physical and psychological needs."