Late last week it was reported that following Venezuela's lead in attempting to reduce "violent tendencies" in South American children, Brazilian Sen. Valdir Raupp has authored a bill that would make it a crime to make, import, or distribute "offensive" video games.
The goal of the bill is to "curb the manufacture, distribution, importation, distribution, trading, and custody, [and] storage of, the video games that affect the customs, traditions of the people, their worship, creeds, religions and symbols."
Where this ban, like many others, falls short is in assigning blame for societal ills to video games instead of dealing with larger social issues, including a lack of parental oversight. There are, no doubt, influences in Brazil that are different from the U.S., but video game ratings have proven to be an excellent example of an industry-wide standard that could easily be adopted internationally.
In a recent report, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) praised the video game industry for continuing "to have the strongest self-regulatory code" of all the entertainment sectors.
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A screenshot from the iPhone version of The Sims 3, one of thousands of games available for the Apple smartphone.
(Credit: Electronic Arts)Most iPhone games are clearly appropriate for all audiences: puzzles, brain-teasers, mazes, and the like. But others, including some of the most fierce shooter games, may not be kid-friendly, at least from parents' perspectives.
But at least right now, there are no ratings for iPhone games, unlike for console or PC titles, and the president of the Electronic Software Ratings Board thinks that needs to change.
The ESRB--which is controlled by the video game industry's leading companies--rates games according to their content. The ratings include "C," for young children; "E," for everyone; "E 10+," for ages 10 and up; "T," for those 13 and up; "M," for ages 17 and older; and "AO," for adults only.
According to Kotaku, ESRB President Patricia Vance thinks it's a no-brainer that iPhone games should be rated, so that parents can have a sense of whether games on the hit mobile device are right for their kids.
"ESRB ratings empower parents to do their job," Vance told Kotaku. "Considering the fact that the vast majority of parents are already aware of and regularly using ESRB ratings, Apple's adoption of them for iPhone games seems like a no-brainer."
That's particularly true, Vance added, because Apple, in its announcements on Monday about the newest iPhone firmware upgrade, said it would offer the ability to block movies and TV shows on the iPhone based on content. But the company said nothing about games.
"Adding ESRB ratings to the controls (Apple) already plans to offer," Vance told Kotaku, "would give parents the ability to exert control over the games their children play as well."
The Entertainment Software Ratings Board rates games, but its president is asking why Apple has not offered such ratings for iPhone games.
(Credit: ESRB)And Vance has a point. Games are clearly one of the killer apps for the iPhone, what with thousands of them already available on Apple's App Store, and many of them among the most popular apps. And while Apple attempts to filter submitted apps for some level of appropriateness, there have been many documented cases of apps of questionable taste making it through.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request by CNET News for comment.
One has to wonder if this is something Apple has thought about, or how much extra work it would take them to add ESRB-style ratings. On the other hand, adding the ratings would also create a situation where Apple might find itself embroiled in controversy if a game ended up having hidden--or difficult to find--content outside the applied rating. That, of course, is what happened with Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2005, a scandal that reverberated across the games industry and into politics.
Perhaps Apple has decided it wants none of that.
Parents trying to figure out what video games are appropriate for their kids have a new tool at their disposal.
Already, they've been able to look at games' ratings--"E" for everyone, "T" for teen, "M" for ages 17 and up, and "AO" for adults only. But now, the agency that decides which games are right for which age groups, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, will be offering what it calls "summaries" of each game's rating.
The idea, the ESRB said in a release Wednesday morning, is to allow parents to see some of the thought process behind the agency's decision.
"The new rating summaries explain in objective terms," the release stated, "the context and relevant content that factored into a game's ESRB rating assignment."
Beginning Wednesday, parents and others will be able to view these summaries for all new games, as well as those the ESRB has rated going back to July 1, 2008. The information will be available on the agency's main Web site, on a mobile site (m.esrb.org) or through a special "rating search widget."
To be sure, many games are bought on impulse, so this service will go unnoticed and unused much of the time. But by making the information available via a mobile site, the ESRB is ensuring that parents aware of the program will be able to check the summaries while at retail outlets. Many others will be able to look into the games that their children are asking for, allowing them to make the decision about whether to buy the titles based on more information than just the rating itself.
All in all, this is probably a good move by the ESRB, which has taken heat in the past for its ratings--and which is clearly striving to be seen as more transparent, and therefore more relevant.
The ESRB is an arm of the video game industry's organizational body, the Entertainment Software Association and all major (and most smaller) publishers agree to subject their titles to the ESRBs ratings.
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