Preferably, your children will go outside to play and get some exercise. But, if the lure of video games and television is too much, at least game manufacturers and broadcasters are coming to understand the need to get kids active.

Some new games require players to stand up and actually move their arms and legs, rather than just their thumbs, to get characters to move across the screen. Others project images of the children themselves, fighting enemies and eluding bad guys, onto the TV screen. Television programs and videos for children now feature exercise regimes and dance routines and exhort the young viewers to get off the couch and join in. The cable channel Nickelodeon plans to introduce a program called “LazyTown,” where the town’s children are torn between a health-conscious superhero name Sportacus and lazy Robbie Rotten who lounges around.

None of this is going to turn inactive kids into athletes, but it’s a start.

Obesity rates among children have nearly quadrupled in the last 30 years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of boys and 14.5 percent of girls ages 6 to 11 were obese in 2000. In 1971, 4.3 percent of boys and 3.6 percent of girls were considered obese. In Maine, more than a third of kindergarten students are overweight and the state has the highest obesity rate among adults in New England. Lack of physical activity and poor diet – often food high in fat and sugar eaten in front of the television – are the main culprits.

A recent study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley found that Americans spend nine times as much time watching television as they do exercising. This is especially true of kids. Children, ages 2 to 11, average 20 hours a week in front of a television. Add in time in front of a computer and the situation is even worse.

Games and TV shows that encourage, or even demand, activity are helpful. Better yet, get the kids outside to ride their bikes or run around or take them to a pool or the beach for a swim.