The Nintendo 3DS Will Destroy Children's Eyeballs, really

[Silversurfer]

Remember your parents telling you sitting too close to the TV would make you blind? Well, now when parents tell young kids to turn off the 3D on Nintendo's 3DS 'cause it'll ruin their eyes—they'll actually be right.

The machine translation is a little rough, but the gist is clear: Nintendo has issued a warning that kids under six shouldn't use the 3DS's 3D mode because their vision is still "in the development stage," and the way that stereoscopic 3D works, delivering different images to each eyeball, "has a potential impact on the growth of children's eyes."

Sony's also noted that kids under six shouldn't play 3D games without being examined by their eye doctor first. But the 3DS is in a slightly different position than the PS3, since Nintendo's way more geared toward kids than Sony is.

To keep the childrens away from 3D, the 3DS will apparently have a parental lock on 3D, locking the 3DS in 2D mode. Even with the parental lock, though, this is pretty crazy. Nintendo issuing a warning explicitly stating, "Hey, our product could screw up your child's vision." Who's gonna buy that for their kids?

If there's a more powerful argument against 3D—besides the fact so much of the content is still pretty weak—I don't know what it is. [Nintendo Japan via Electronista]

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[cybereality]

Yeah, and kids shouldn't listen to iPods either because their ears are still developing. In fact, they should not eat candy either because their taste buds are still developing.

[yuriythebest]

Yeah nothing we didn't know before. Kids under 6-7 should not be over-exposed to 3d "just in case"

Funnily enough the Fuji W3 has a warning that appears after you use it for a while on the screen saying something like "using 3d for a long time may damage your health" - or something similar. There is an option to disable it but I just keep it for comical effect