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Respect ESRB Video Game Rating Guidelines!

12 Pledges
  • Start Date:
    4-20-2007
  • Last Pledge:
    6-18-2008

Issue:

What is the ESRB? The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a non-profit, self-regulatory body established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). ESRB independently assigns computer and video game content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines and helps ensure responsible online privacy practices for the interactive entertainment software industry. The problem? Too many parents blindly ignore the ESRB rating in games due to the fact that they are not aware it exists. Too many times, parents will purchase a game not suitable for their child due to having no real information about its content. This leads to children getting their hands on games such as Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil, which are games with a rating strictly for adults (M for mature), and in no way suitable for children. By arming ourselves with knowledge in reference to the ESRB ratings on the boxes of games, we will be able to make better choices in video game entertainment for our youth.

Belief:

We wouldn't let our children watch movies rated R or above, so why should we expose them to games with a rating of M (mature) or above? We need to regulate not just what they watch, but what they play as well. Just like we use the movie ratings to determine what content they can watch, we can use the ratings on the video game boxes to determine what they can play.

I pledge to...

4 Pledges
Further Educate myself about the ESRB rating system. (http://www.esrb.org/)
3 Pledges
Purchase games based on my child's age and a proper match to the specific content rating he/she falls under.
5 Pledges
Pass the word along to an uninformed parent about the ESRB.
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Submitted on 4-8-2008

im fourteen and i play video games a lot and have access to sharp objects.. thus fr im no murderer or rapist or junkie or pimp after playing so many [18-rated] games related to those things

your all paranoid - how many people have honestly been murdered as a result of video game violence? and i want proof - not just "they played violent games then killed a guy"

Submitted on 6-1-2007
"Should we ban or restrict the use of violent video games?" I think The rating system which they have had for many years now is fine. It is similar to the ratings they have in movies. We should not ban violent video games. Most people know the difference between fantasy and realty. Because I kill a computer generated person in a "Scarface" video game does not mean I am going to re-enact that in real life. It's fun.
Submitted on 6-1-2007
I think kids just need monitoring. If you won't let them see a rated R movie, why would you let them play a game with the equivalent rating? I believe violent games do in fact need to be taken away from the young audiences, but the same is said about anything else thats barbaric such as violent movies like HOSTEL and blood sports such as UFC. Parents need to wake up and look at the ratings, it clearly warns you to stay clear!!!
Submitted on 5-31-2007
The debate about violent video games such as Mortal Kombat, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom has received a lot of attention since 1999 when two students of Columbine High School, Colorado, shot and killed 13 fellow pupils and finally themselves. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold enjoyed the bloody video game Doom and, according to many, were inspired by it. The debate over the destructive influence of video games even arrived at the US senate in 2000, when several researchers showed concern about the effect of violent video games on young people. While we can learn much from existing research on other media types, research focusing on violent video games is very limited. Two studies by the psychologists Craig Anderson and Karen Dill, dealing with the effects of violent video games both in the laboratory and in real life are considered extremely important in the field. Rating systems, adopted globally by the video game industry in 1994, established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a comprehensive labelling system that rates over 1,000 games per year and has now rated more than 8,000 games in total. Less than 1 per cent of all games released in the UK have been rated as suitable only for people 18 years or over. Laws banning or restricting the sale of violent video games and enforcing rating upon them have been introduced by several US states (Washington, Indiana and St. Louis among them). An estimated 145 million Americans are video game users and $6.9 billion has been invested in sales in 2002. In Europe, Germany has also moved towards a ban on violent video games after 16 people were killed in an Erfurt School in 2002.
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