Chief executive of McDonald's UK Steve Easterbrook told the Times Online that games deserve some of the blame for rising childhood obesity rates.

While the executive admits that McDonald's food plays a part in the expanding waistlines of children, Easterbrook points out, "there’s a lifestyle element: there’s fewer green spaces and kids are sat home playing computer games on the TV when in the past they’d have been burning off energy outside."

Though not mentioned directly by Easterbrook, it can be inferred other possible scapegoats for child obesity would also include schooling, television, reading, coloring books and hobby kits.

Meanwhile, Nintendo's Wii has garnered praise for its motion-sensitive controls and upcoming fitness-oriented software, which while not quite as beneficial as a nightly jog around the block, at the very least prompts the waggling of pudgy, misshapen arms.