Nintendo 3D Games Not for Kids, Nintendo Warns

Nintendo 3D Games: A Nintendo employee displays a new portable videogame console with a 3D display called the 'Nintendo 3DS' at a conference in Chiba, suburban Tokyo on September 29, 2010. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)

Nintendo 3D games should not be played by children under the age of six as the glasses-free three-dimensional games on its upcoming 3DS console could affect young kids’ eyesight development, Nintendo said according to media reports.

The Japanese video game maker said that at an upcoming Nintendo event next month, the company will “offer 2Ds alone to children aged six and younger as continuing to watch 3D images for a long time could negatively affect the development of their eyes,” AFP reported.

Nintendo also said that the 3D on its 3DS console could be changed into 2D for the young children, and that adults who play the 3DS’s 3D games should take a break every 30 minutes, according to ABC News.

Experts polled by the game company worry that children playing the console’s 3D games, or watching 3D movies and images, could have their eyesight development stunted, AFP said.

The 3DS is a special iteration of Nintendo’s popular hand-held DS gaming system that can play 3D games which include the perception of depth.

The device will have two screens: a top screen that is 3D and a bottom one that is a touchscreen.

The 3DS will be released in late February in Japan and the month after for the American, European, and Australian markets.