Parents on an online forum have expressed concerns over Nintendo's Wii Fit creating a bad body image, particularly within young girls.

The controversy was sparked after a user complained that the game labelled her relative overweight.

"My [relative] came round this weekend and we let her play on our Wii Fit", she wrote. "We have all laughed and joked about being told that we're fat and need to lose weight but I was gobsmacked when it told her that she is overweight."

According to the poster, the girl in question is a healthy 4'9 10-year-old who swims, dances and weighs only 6 stone. "She is solidly built", the poster adds, "but not fat".

Apparently the young girl was "devastated" to be called labelled as overweight.

The poster added: "I know it is just a game but seriously we already have to worry about young girls starving themselves to look like the magazine models and now we have a game that tells them they're fat".

Forum users have replied with varying responses, many angrily and backing the posters decision to write and complain to Nintendo (they are yet to reply).

However as one forum member pointed out, Wii Fit merely utilises the internationally-used BMI scale to calculate whether a user is overweight or not, and so Nintendo cannot be held responsible for the outcome. Plus, the BMI scale for an adult is calculated differently than that for children.

A 17-year-old member also supported the game.She commented: "I personally don't care what a video game says about you, Brain Training constantly tells me I'm stupid, even though I'm not. I guess some people think differently".