Covering, perhaps, its legal and regulatory bases, Japanese gaming giant Nintendo Co. has published a warning that children 6 years old or younger should not play 3-D games on its new hand-held device, the 3DS, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Experts say the jury is still out on whether the 3-D images seen in movies or used in games can harm a child’s developing eye. Nevertheless, Nintendo posted a warning on its website that says, “There is a possibility that 3D images which send different images to the left and right eye could affect the development of vision in small children.” It recommends that parents use a parental-controls feature to block access to the 3-D mode, leaving their kids with only the 2-D mode to play with.
None of Japan’s big electronics companies is blind to the potential for regulators and plaintiffs’ lawyers to pursue claims of kids suffering eyesight damage from 3-D devices — Samsung Electronics Co., Sony and Panasonic Corp. have all posted warnings on their websites about the possible risks of viewing 3-D images for children. So Nintendo’s move may make prudent — if not visionary — business sense.
But it may still be asking a bit much of tech-challenged parents to block 3-D access — or, for that matter, prevent precocious kids from switching out of 2-D and into 3-D.
