How to Understand Ratings and Parental Guidelines for Video Games

IndiaBeats

Editor

posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

3
views

Understanding how ESRB rating work is very important because it helps parents who may not be familiar with game content make better decisions before buying a new video game for their child. Before age ratings, there was public outrage over violent video games (for example, Mortal Kombat) that were clearly not aimed at children but it was not simple for parents to know if the game their child wants them to buy is appropriate for them. In 1994, the ESRB ratings were introduced to help parents get a general understanding of what content may be in the game to help them make better and informed choices. Note: The rating descriptions depicted on the images are outdated but they will be maintained to show what the rating looks like.

Steps

Understand what the EC rating is. The EC rating stands for Early Childhood, and it is a special video game rating to indicate the content is intended for a preschool audience. This rating was discontinued in 2017, but older video games may display this rating.

Understand what the E rating is. The E rating stands for Everyone, and contains content suitable for all ages. While there may be some cartoon, fantasy, or mild violence and/or mild language, most parents will find that the rating contains nothing that would offend them. In the image, it shows that the E-rating is for ages 6 and older, but the ESRB changed it to include all ages (please disregard the image as it no longer applies). There are no age restrictions for this rating.

Understand what the E10+ ratings is. The E10+ rating stands for Everyone 10+, and contains content recommended for ages 10 and older including more cartoon, fantasy, or mild violence, and/or mild language than the Everyone (E). It may also contain crude humor and/or suggestive themes. There are no age restrictions for this rating.

Understand what the T rating is. The T rating stands for Teen, and contains content suitable for ages 13 and older including violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language. There are no age restrictions for this rating, but it is not recommended for children ages 12 and under.

Understand what the M rating is. M stands for Mature, and contains content suitable for ages 17 and older including intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, nudity, and/or strong language. Most retailers will not sell M-rated games to children under the age of 17 without parental consent. If your child wants to buy an M-rated game, you should research the game before you buy it as it contains some adult content.

Understand what the AO rating is. AO stands for Adults Only, and contains content that is only suitable for ages 18 and older including prolonged scenes of intense violence, graphic sexual content, and/or gambling involving real money. These video games are off-limits to ages 17 and under as most parents would consider these games to be too adult for children. There are very few video games with this rating; the only ones that carry this rating are computer games. This rating does not indicate the video game is pornographic or obscene, but it simply that the content is appropriate only for adults. Most retailers choose not to stock AO-rated games. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft banned AO-rated video games from their platforms, and most advertisers refuse to promote games with this rating.