Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

WW App for kids and teens

SuzySunshine99
SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,989 Member
in Debate Club
Weight Watchers has debuted an app for kids as young as 8 years old to promote "healthy eating", but also weight loss. There is obviously some controversy about this:

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness/weight-watchers-app-kids-draws-backlash-parents-calls/story?id=65052867&cid=clicksource_4380645_null_card_hed

Do you think this is a good idea?

My opinion is that if a child or teen needs to lose weight, this should be monitored closely by their parents and doctor, not an app. I think it could lead to a very unhealthy relationship with food.

Replies

  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    This sounds like a really great way to nurture eating disorders and poor relationships with food in children and teens. In other words, a horrible idea.
  • Terytha
    Terytha Posts: 2,097 Member
    I was in Weight Watchers regular at age 16. It wasn't so bad. Since fruits and veg are zero points it mostly felt like a way to reinforce eating fresh over eating cookies when hungry, which as an overweight teen with a sweet tooth, was to my benefit. Of course, I had both my mom and the people running the meetings and stuff keeping an eye on me.

    An app just sounds like a recipe for unhealthy relationships with food. Particularly for small kids who are very impressionable. An 8 year old only cares about their weight/food if an adult makes them feel like crap about it.

    Anyway. Forgive the ramble, my point was that it's not the worst for kids to do something like WW, but it should be limited to at least teens and not done through an app that isn't monitored.
  • SLL1803
    SLL1803 Posts: 49 Member
    I think it's appalling. It's blatant profiteering, hooking children into diet culture, and promoting unhealthy and unsustainable ideas.
  • SLL1803
    SLL1803 Posts: 49 Member
    Maybe they think it's "woo hoo", and agree emphatically?
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    I think it's unfortunate there's a market for this in the first place.

    I also think Strava is a better app to put on your kids phone. It uses encouragement and positive reinforcement to encourage healthy habits.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,203 Member
    SuzySunshine99 wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    I hear banks do the same so you can manage and monitor your finances, yet I've heard no controversy about obsessive spending habits.



    Banks don't develop apps for kids. If you gave an 8-year-old access to your online bank account, I bet you'd see some obsessive spending. The controversy is whether or not an app like this should be marketed to children and teens, who may not know how to use it in a healthy, responsible way.

    It's a complete aside, but there actually are banking apps for kids. But it's their money, not their parents' money, just like it's the kid's food in the WW app, not the parent's.

    I'm a skeptic about WW for kids, but not about the banking apps, so I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your underlying point.

    Credit cards for kids would maybe be more likely to cause 3rd parties worries about creating bad spending habits, I would guess . . . but it would only be a guess. The use of money budgeting as an analogy for calorie budgeting works fairly well, but breaks down at some points.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited August 2019
    Minors dieting at all can be problematic for a couple of reasons.

    First, it's perfectly normal for kids to go through chubby and skinny phases as they grow. Unless a child is obese, most pediatricians will advise parents to just try to keep them active and monitor over-snacking and see if their weight improves on its own.

    And even for a child who does have a weight problem, caution needs to be taken to ensure they don't develop an emotional link to controlling their diet. How many women started feeling like crap about their bodies and guilty about food in their preteen and teen years because they were either put on a diet themselves or watched their own mom obsess over her food and weight?

    I think if a pediatrician believes a child with a weight problem needs to learn to exhibit discipline in their eating, and the underlying issues are being dealt with, gamefying it with an app could be a positive. But too many parents don't understand weight loss or differences in a child's nutritional needs and weight fluctuations, and marketing to them and children directly does feel icky to me.

    I do want to come to the defense of traffic light eating though. It's actually an old concept, and simply suggests thinking about foods before eating. There are everyday foods, sometimes foods, and treat foods. Green light foods are a go - nutritious and not too calorie dense. Yellow light foods mean slow down and be mindful - these are foods that you need to be careful of portion size or eating too often. Red light foods mean stop and think - these are treat foods that are best eaten occasionally. It actually can be a good guideline for kids when presented the right way, I believe here the problem is with the presentation, not the concept itself.
  • pancakerunner
    pancakerunner Posts: 6,137 Member
    5tjx1xkqnq4v.png
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    .

    I do want to come to the defense of traffic light eating though. It's actually an old concept, and simply suggests thinking about foods before eating. There are everyday foods, sometimes foods, and treat foods. Green light foods are a go - nutritious and not too calorie dense. Yellow light foods mean slow down and be mindful - these are foods that you need to be careful of portion size or eating too often. Red light foods mean stop and think - these are treat foods that are best eaten occasionally. It actually can be a good guideline for kids when presented the right way, I believe here the problem is with the presentation, not the concept itself.

    That's pretty similar to what my niece's pediatrician had my SIL and BIL do.
  • texaskatezoo
    texaskatezoo Posts: 1 Member
    I just got back on MFP to get control of my weight. It's that or surgery. My 12 year old daughter is following in my footsteps with unhealthy eating and excess weight. We both are going to work to get on track. I was looking for a version of MFP that would work for tweens - to help in the same way MFP helps me. I looked at the WW app for her and I actually thought it looked like exactly what she would need. Live, weekly coaching. Available via text for help. Communication to parents. Not too complicated to follow or maintain going forward. It seems to me when you get to the point where you have to focus on what you are eating and counting calories and scrutinizing foods, regardless of what program you are using, you are entering into possibility of obsessive or unhealthy relationships with food. But I think that's what got us into this situation to begin with. I think with doing it together, and focusing on being healthy and active, the two apps can help us. I want to be involved, but she also wants to own this challenge. I think that makes sense. I can't do it for her. But we can do this together.
    I am open to suggestions for a better app for tweens.
  • BuiltLikeAPeep
    BuiltLikeAPeep Posts: 94 Member
    texaskatezoo wrote: »
    I just got back on MFP to get control of my weight. It's that or surgery. My 12 year old daughter is following in my footsteps with unhealthy eating and excess weight. We both are going to work to get on track. I was looking for a version of MFP that would work for tweens - to help in the same way MFP helps me. I looked at the WW app for her and I actually thought it looked like exactly what she would need. Live, weekly coaching. Available via text for help. Communication to parents. Not too complicated to follow or maintain going forward. It seems to me when you get to the point where you have to focus on what you are eating and counting calories and scrutinizing foods, regardless of what program you are using, you are entering into possibility of obsessive or unhealthy relationships with food. But I think that's what got us into this situation to begin with. I think with doing it together, and focusing on being healthy and active, the two apps can help us. I want to be involved, but she also wants to own this challenge. I think that makes sense. I can't do it for her. But we can do this together.
    I am open to suggestions for a better app for tweens.

    I believe as long as a parent is monitoring the child using the app, it's a good thing. Maybe they should require the parent to download the app and sign in so they can actively monitor what's going on.
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,155 Member
    BuiltLikeAPeep wrote: »
    texaskatezoo wrote: »
    I just got back on MFP to get control of my weight. It's that or surgery. My 12 year old daughter is following in my footsteps with unhealthy eating and excess weight. We both are going to work to get on track. I was looking for a version of MFP that would work for tweens - to help in the same way MFP helps me. I looked at the WW app for her and I actually thought it looked like exactly what she would need. Live, weekly coaching. Available via text for help. Communication to parents. Not too complicated to follow or maintain going forward. It seems to me when you get to the point where you have to focus on what you are eating and counting calories and scrutinizing foods, regardless of what program you are using, you are entering into possibility of obsessive or unhealthy relationships with food. But I think that's what got us into this situation to begin with. I think with doing it together, and focusing on being healthy and active, the two apps can help us. I want to be involved, but she also wants to own this challenge. I think that makes sense. I can't do it for her. But we can do this together.
    I am open to suggestions for a better app for tweens.

    I believe as long as a parent is monitoring the child using the app, it's a good thing. Maybe they should require the parent to download the app and sign in so they can actively monitor what's going on.

    Yeah. I don't let my children have devices at all, but parental access and supervision would be an absolute minimum requirement for me.

    For the most part, our meals are eaten at home and I'm not eating substantially different food than my children are. This might change as they get older, but for preteens I'd think parents are still the ones doing modelling and observation. I'm reluctant to put that responsibility even in part on an app.
  • panda4153
    panda4153 Posts: 418 Member
    It’s a tool that’s all. Like any health tool it can be used appropriately, or it can be abused. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, I honestly wish I had something like it as a teenager, I maybe would not have gotten so out of hand with my eating habits if I had a tool to help me track and understand my decisions around eating.

    For a child who needs something like this and who’s parents or guardians are actively involved and the proper healthcare considerations are being accounted for this is something that could be very helpful.

    Lots of good tools can be abused, but I don’t think it should be the tool is not available. Instead we need better access to mental health care for those who struggle with any kind of disordered thinking and we need to be watching out for and teaching our kids about how to think critically and make sound decisions for themselves.

Categories