Parents have probably heard their child plead for the most recent, best-selling video game. You may also have had to decide whether the game was rated. “T for Teen,”Recommended for children 13 years and older. It is okay for younger children “tween”To play. What do you do if it says on the box that the game contains a rating? “Fantasy Violence”And “Blood and Gore?”What does this mean exactly?
“Those terms (content descriptors) are helpful, but sometimes I need more detail than what’s on the box,”One parent says, “especially when my 11-year-old has got his heart set on a game, and I’m more inclined to err on the side of caution.”
Parents can now use a new resource to help them decide if a videogame is right for their child. Entertainment Software Rating Board, a non-profit that rates video games and assigns ratings for their content and age, recently began offering this service. “rating summaries,”These brief explanations provide an overview of the content that is considered to be part of a game’s rating. These explain everything, from the type of violence in the game to what words your child will hear to how a character uses alcohol, tobacco or other drugs.
Parents can search for specific titles on ESRB’s website to locate rating summaries (www.esrb.org), or they can look them up, right from the video game store, by using a Web-enabled cell phone to search game titles on the ESRB’s mobile Web site (m.esrb.org).
“The ratings are a great resource, and checking them will undoubtedly give you a good sense of whether a game is right for your child, but by their nature they are intended to provide basic guidance and information,”Patricia Vance is president of the ESRB. “For those parents that want to go beyond the rating information on the package, rating summaries deliver exactly what they need. They allow parents to dig deeper and get that much more comfortable with a game’s content before they bring it home for their child. At the end of the day, it’s all about peace of mind.”
