Judge to 12-Year-Old: Surrender the Wii

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - A judge in a Winnipeg, Canada, granted bail to a 12-year-old boy on the condition that he surrenders his Wii game console, according to The Winnipeg Sun .

Police said that the boy has been in trouble for many offenses in recent months including smashing a window at his school, punching a classmate several times in the face, disobeying a court order, and assaulting two separate boys and a female teacher.

Judge Marvin Garfinkle granted the boy bail, but only after he agreed to provide the court his most valued possession as security -- his Nintendo Wii. The boy must maintain the peace, appear on court ordered dates and live with his grandmother, or the Wii is gone, reported The Sun .

"He is pledging as a security, akin to a cash deposit, his Nintendo Wii," Garfinkle said to the paper. "And if he doesn't comply, he loses it."

The state, or the Crown in Canada, argued that the boy was out of control and should not be released on bail, after being caught and released for the various offenses.

"I know it doesn't look good," the boy's lawyer countered. "I've never seen him enraged, I've never seen him upset. He's a 12-year-old who is generally quite scared."

Children at one school in England last spring took up a challenge to go a whole month without any TV, Internet, or video games, like Wii, and keep a diary about the experience. So how did they cope? One student posted on Day 15, "I wanted to play on the Wii but cooked a banana cake instead." Another Wii-related post on Day 28 stated, "Dad says the games I play on the Wii are better in real life, so he took me skateboarding. It was fun. We're tenpin bowling tomorrow."

At the end of the month the boy's parent said that the experiment was good and would encourage other parents and children to try it.