Whether the culprit is video games -- a likely candidate -- or perhaps a time crunch that offers parents less time to engage their children in recreational exercise, the truth is that too many kids are just not getting much physical activity.

Research funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development shows that 9-year-olds get two hours of exercise a day, 90 percent of them, anyway. But when the same measure is applied to 15-year-olds, the figures drops astonishingly, to 3 percent. Obviously, games are a factor, along with all the socializing kids do while plopped in front of computers.

Some of the poisonous harvest of that is seen in kids who are overweight. The long-term implications range from diabetes to heart disease to high blood pressure. More children are being put on drugs to lower cholesterol, drugs once aimed chiefly at those in middle age.

Beyond its impact on individuals, more disease related to a lack of activity or excessive weight means an eventual spike in health-care costs for everyone.

Parents must take the lead -- perhaps rewarding physical activity in sports or at gymnasiums with computer time, and reducing that time if a youngster is not getting himself or herself some rigorous exercise. That's one thought. Best of all, parents could find any number of activities that could be shared with family. There aren't many moms and dads, after all, who wouldn't like the notion of losing a few pounds or getting that refreshed feeling that exercise brings.

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