Although we’ve heard not to judge books by their covers, concerned parents should definitely give video game covers a close look before allowing their children a go. The ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) assigns over 1,000 ratings each year. They supply two tools that parents can use to base their decision on: a rating system to indicate their main age recommendation and a content description.
Rating symbols can be found on the front of the game box: The mildest is marked EC, meaning Early Childhood. These games are considered suitable for ages 3 and up. They contain no material that parents should find inappropriate.
All other games may contain some level of violence and language.
The rule is: the higher the age recommendation, the more violence, language use and explicit content in general. These are:
* E: Everyone. From 6 and up. May include mild violence and language.
* E 10 +: Everyone from 10 and up. Violence level and language still considered mild, yet more so than E.
* T: Teen. From 13 and up. In addition to mild violence, may contain some blood, crude humour and
occasional strong language.
* M: Mature. From 17 and up. May contain violence, blood and gore, sexual content and strong language.
* AO: Adults Only. From 18 and up. May contain intense violence and graphic sexuality.
The ratings only suggest what the game may contain. For a more detailed indication, the content description on the back cover will be helpful. These are self-explanatory phrases such as: “Alcohol Reference”, suggesting reference to and/or images of alcoholic beverages, “Nudity”, indicating graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity, “Cartoon Violence”, meaning violent actions involving cartoon-like situations and characters. This may include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted.
Stay Safe!