by Kyle Betts

Created on: January 06, 2010

Working off my student debt at a suburban video store made me furious. Not just because my customers had terrible tastes in movies, but because they made horrifying gaming choices for their young children. The ERSB suggestions are enforced at a retail level. My store, like many others, checked ID every time we sold an M rated game, and every week we still had mommy and rent Grand Theft Auto for their children. 

I saw this happen every weekend.

And it wasn't because of parental ignorance.  The ratings on the packaging have greatly improved since the ratings were implemented in the nineties. Appropriate age suggestions are clearly marked on the front, and content descriptions are also clearly labelled as well. Plus, if a parent every was confused about the packaging, most stores have lots of literature, posters and staff that will give advice.

Plus, consider all the press that game will get when it includes a soap opera style sex scene. News outlets, liberal and conservative,  will sound the alarm and warn parents about the 'adult content aimed at their children'. Parents hear the hype on television, read about the sexual content on the package and then bring a game like Mass Effect and only see PG-13 content. Parents don't take the rating seriously, because more often than not, the ratings are ridiculous.

For example, Halo 3 got an M rating in the United states, however in the United Kingdom it was suggested for 15 and up. Mass effect was also rated M in North America for a love scene that might've been too tame for the Young and the Restless. Yet, it was recommended for 12 year olds in England. There is a serious  gap between what the ERSB thinks is appropriate, and what most parents know is ok for their kids. So, the problem comes when a Grand Theft Auto hits store shelves and parents don't take the ratings seriously when they should.

So, for ESRB ratings to work, they should be useful. They should be an accurate and logical appropriation of the game's content. Ratings that are too strict and alarmist do more harm than good because they're seen as ridiculous. However, there are games that are only for adult audiences, and the ESRB must reserve the M rating. Ratings are an important tool for the concerned parent, but to be useful, they have to make sense.

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