Newsflash: Like everything else, games, too, should be consumed in moderation

OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. Thankfully, nobody has used recent news reports out of England about a child who wound up with red lumps on her fingers after playing too many hours of a Sony Playstation game per day to claim that all video game consoles should be piled up sky-high and burned into bonfires (which, incidentally, would be absolutely terrible for the environment).

The exact medical condition, called idiopathic eccrine hidradenitis, is traditionally associated with athletes who spend too many hours doing physical exercise in the same running shoes. This seems to be the first time a case involving video games was found.

Though I admit I had no idea this could happen, let me suggest that playing video games for several hours a day is a terrible idea, even if it didn't cause skin lesions.

Blasphemy, you say? You don't read Raffy's Got Game every weekend to reminisce your parents reprimanding you for spending too much time avoiding crazy, barrel-chucking Donkey Kong, you scream?

Now calm down, don't reach for that online petition asking for my head on a silver platter just yet. Let me explain myself.

I'm never going to be the one ranting about how video games are rotting our childrens' brains, because I don't believe that's true. What I do think, though, is that gaming for too many hours per day is unhealthy for just about anyone. With the possible exception of some Wii games or dancing simulators, gaming is still largely an immobile, sitting affair, which means you are not burning any calories or getting any exercise done while you stare at your flickering TV screen.

And whereas a large part of today's games are connected to the Internet, I'm not ready to shut down the age-old argument that playing too many video games can be bad for social development. Of course, there are always multiplayer games that you play in person with other people in the room, and those can be great, but they are not the majority. And I'm sorry, but screaming obscenities into your wireless headphone to some stranger halfway around the world after they shot your character's head off in a first-person shooter does not for socializing make.

So what's the solution? Everything in moderation, as they say. It's been quite a while now since I've had even the possibility (or inclination, frankly) to play video games for several hours a day, but even when I did as a younger child, it rarely happened, except on a weekend day.

On the couple of occasions I couldn't resist the siren song of the joystick at all, even long enough to get homework done, it wouldn’t be too long before I heard from one of my parents. I even remember my old, gray Nintendo being unplugged and hidden once (though not hidden nearly well enough, mom).

Perhaps that might seem a little drastic, but I've heard much worse stories from some friends, like parents refusing to allow their children a console in the household at all.

With the console per household penetration rate these days, we're probably starting to see the end of that. After all, today's young parents are the ones who grew up as games came into prominence, meaning our 25-40 year olds are the first generation for whom video games have been a fact of life since childhood.

Just because that's true, though, does not mean there isn't some wisdom in adapting some of the rules their own parents had when it came to balancing their electronic hobby with other activities.