Games turn children's fingers wonky

By Robert Purchese Published 31 March, 2009

Experts predict wizening, gnarliness etc.

Children that spend too long playing videogames can grow up with deformed fingers.

That's according to US news channel NBC25 (spotted by GoNintendo), which heard from both experts and victims about the perils of our industry.

"Just by looking at these hands, can you guess this person's age?" NBC25 reporter Colette Stinger asks.

The hands belong to 15 year-old Whitney Leverette. Despite the dramatic introduction, only the tips of the fingers bend unusually. She's hardly the Elephant Girl.

"A lot... I dunno, most of my day was spent playing videogames," said Leverette, holding an N64 pad.

Mike Tomich, a researcher and author on such matters, has studied hundreds of children with wonky fingers. He said this happens as a result of repeatedly "pressing and twisting".

Dr Amar Sawar, a Rheumatologist and Neurologist, added that the earlier children begin playing videogames, the more susceptible their hands will be.

"I wish someone would have told me back then, because I hate looking at my hands," rued Leverette, "They're just gross."

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DaM #1 3 years ago

    Videogames are truly the spur to rapid evolution of homo sapiens. Just this week we've had better eyesight and now superuserful long-fingered bendy hands.

    Telepathy will be next, so we can throw away headsets.

  • Eraysor #2 3 years ago

    Ah, the wonders of "expert" opinions.

    EDIT: Actually, if anything gaming from the age of about 5 has done wonders for my hands; I have an extra muscle on the ring finger of each hand that allows me to bend the last segment at right angles to the rest of the finger, while keeping the rest of the finger totally straight. O.o
    Edited by 1 at 31/03/09 @ 14:21

  • jim1975 #3 3 years ago

    is it worse than wanking

  • Buztafen #4 3 years ago

    Ban this sick filth!

  • Hawkins #5 3 years ago

    No wonky fingers here but those Playstation pads do keep causing my hands to cramp every five minutes. I grew up with the keyboard and mouse combo anyway.

  • Gazza_UK #6 3 years ago

    Anyone else relentlessly staring at their fingers now?

  • JJrabbit #7 3 years ago

    If the gaming future follows the Wiimote, we're going to have super eyesight, super bendy hands and biceps the size of tree trunks. We need to stop this madness!!

  • Toothball #8 3 years ago

    My fingers were already wonky long before I started gaming. The RSI though, that's a more recent development.
    Edited by 1 at 31/03/09 @ 15:04

  • spekkeh #9 3 years ago

    "I wish someone would have told me back then, because I hate looking at my hands," rued Leverette, "They're just gross."

    I wish the authors wrote a peer reviewed scientific article, instead of a book.

  • menage #10 3 years ago

    Darwin says hi!

  • thenastypasty #11 3 years ago

    Best news story iv read all day.

  • jonsaan #12 3 years ago

    Utter gash methinks.

  • RexRunti #13 3 years ago

    As someone who has been gaming for 29 years (and is 29) the only deformity on my fingers is that wierd bump thing you get from using a pen.

  • Eraser #14 3 years ago

    I think that if this girl spent enough time playing videogames to get bendy fingers, she's got bigger problems than freaky bendy fingers.
    Edited by 1 at 31/03/09 @ 15:23

  • TheBoyChris #15 3 years ago

    Did anyone else just flex their fingers when reading this?

  • Eraser #16 3 years ago

    Speaking of freaky bendy fingers... http://tinyurl.com/chfpru

  • the_dudefather #17 3 years ago

    I got arthritis in my index fingers thanks to playing too much space invaders

    LOOK AT THEM

  • prettyvacant #18 3 years ago

    "My thumbs have gone weird"

  • AlvySinger #19 3 years ago

    I once stretched my thumb so badly playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 that I couldn't take a Journalism shorthand exam the following day. Had to tell my, less than sympathetic, editor what had happened.

    He gave me a stern lecture about looking after your hands, before telling the rest of the office it was "a wanking injury" while I was out to lunch.

    Newspapers really are hives of sensitivity.
    Edited by 1 at 31/03/09 @ 16:02

  • GordonCaladan #20 3 years ago

    Like, gnarly, dude!

  • Razorus #21 3 years ago

    What do you call a lesbian with thick fingers?

    Well hung.

  • Toothball #22 3 years ago

    @AlvySinger:

    That was a good story. I liked it.

  • kinky_mong #23 3 years ago

    I'm not surprised she's got bent fingers if she's still using an N64 pad. Incredibly unergonomic pad.

  • dr_faulk #24 3 years ago

    Watch that your kids don't smell of hammers.

  • metalangel #25 3 years ago

    After nearly three decades of gaming my fingers are fine... however, my wrists grind like a cement mixer (yes, like when Bart Simpson demonstrated) which I blame on the incredibly awkward way you had to hold the Colecovision controller.

  • Optyk #26 3 years ago

    The end is nigh!

  • optimusprym8 #27 3 years ago

    next they'll be warning kids not to do gang signs

  • prettyboytim #28 3 years ago

    I think it's worth looking in to. I would imagine that any activity participated in for several hours a day might cause some physiological changes to children, with their bodies still growing 'n all. I suspect however more research is needed; it might not be that holding a controller is the problem so much as gripping the controller tightly, for instance.

    The researcher mentioned has a page here: http://www.miketomich.com/ .

    Now, I've just finished downloading his 135MB paper, and I've only flicked through it but to be honest the main problem seems to be that he doesn't have a good control group. He has children with 'deformed' hands who have been playing video games, and adults with 'deformed' hands who have been driving 'high steering force' vehicles, but his control group seems to be pictures of children from the third world who are too poor to own videogame consoles and children from pre-80s films for whom consoles would have been unavailable. Neither seem particularly rigorous.

    It's also worth noting that he counts any fingers that are not completely straight and level as 'deformed'; I suspect many people's hands are not quite straight naturally without the intervention of videogame controllers.

  • kangarootoo #29 3 years ago

    Sounds like typical ignorant causality assumptions.

    Observation -> a room full of dyslexia suffers have at some time in their past worn a hat.

    Conclusion -> wearing hats causes dyslexia.

    or not...

  • AgentCool #30 3 years ago

    Is this an early April Fools? It certainly reads like one.

  • Sunyavadin #31 3 years ago

    You know, having held a Playstation pad a few times (Like the week I spent living on a friend's sofa playing FFX), I can honestly agree that yes, yes this is a risk. Though with pads designed for the natural shape of hands, I feel it's less of one.

    To be on the safe side I'd say play on several different consoles regularly.

    Or play PC games. Then your fingers are perfect for typist work.

  • evilbert #32 3 years ago

    Girls shouldn't be playing videogames anyway, the only rsi they should have should be from ironing, cooking or opening beer bottles for me.

  • Stardusted #33 3 years ago

    Now, lets all just close our eyes and imagine a similar study in 2029 after 20 years of wii style controllers dominance...

  • mingster #34 3 years ago

    I can well believe it.

    I think most people have had a 'streetfighter' blister at one point or other.

  • Matfink #35 3 years ago

    I twisted my finger out of shape in a collision while playing football.
    Edited by 1 at 01/04/09 @ 13:12

  • kestral #36 3 years ago

    yo fools

  • grussbarbar #37 3 years ago

    Hm. Reading through the author's book, it is essentially one long 178 page theory the author has. I can't find any scientific data in it, no explanation of what studies the man has done, just a lot of stories and "facts" that aren't facts but assumptions.

    One example of this is that he claims that using a videogame controller can cause up to 7,500 lbs force on some parts of a finger's bones. I've got no clue how he came up with that, but anyone can understand this cannot be true. (He's probably thinking of a lever system in which force is multiplied, but his calculations must be way off. Also, luckily, you can't apply such dry mechanical theories on something as multilayered as the human motor system.)

    A lot of the book is also made up of quotes and letters from people, including medical professionals, who say that there is no problem. Followed by paragraphs that he doesn't agree with them because "his studies" have shown otherwise.

    Apart from video controllers, the author is also convinced that children's fingers can't handle the stress of lifting heavy toys or using crayons. (!) It reads as though he thinks children shouldn't grip anything at all.

    I'd say this is one man who thinks there is a problem where there is none. It should be noted that the author does not seem an expert, even though the news program claimed he was. It seems the man isn't a medical professional, or even a researcher. He's just a concerned grandfather. As for dr. Amar Sawar, I would very much like to hear his opinions explained more thoroughly, backed up with real scientific data. Just some short recordings of a telephone call doesn't convince me. None of the theories in the book seem to be by this doctor.

    I must admit that mr. Tomich put in a lot of effort, admirably so, but his book doesn't prove anything. Apart from that, he should probably have faith in that medical professionals and actual researchers know how the human body works better than he does.


    Edit: I should add that this would be a worthwhile avenue of research. Let's see some real researchers tackle this question. ;)
    Edited by 1 at 03/04/09 @ 16:58