Parental Advisory Labels and Rating Systems

By the early 2000s, most electronic media had devised and implemented a content advisory system designed to let adults know about objectionable content. Ratings systems are designed to allow parents to choose media content for their children without prescreening it. Each industry developed a collection of labels denoting differing levels of age-appropriate content. Those labels are usually referred to as a rating. In addition to these ratings, many media have developed an additional set of content descriptors, symbols that denote specific types of objectionable content (e.g., violent or sexual content, substance use).

Although rating systems help media build goodwill with audiences, media industries have rarely offered ratings spontaneously. Throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, each medium has heard public outcries about its indecent content. Threats of government regulation or legal action have usually preceded the development of rating systems. The First Amendment's free speech concerns offer protection to content producers, thus preventing government-mandated ratings. Still, most industries have introduced ratings to forestall battles with the U.S. Congress, media advertisers, and political action groups.

At present, each medium uses a different rating system, although the various systems have similarities. The motion picture and television industries use a rating system that distinguishes content suitable for all audiences from content for which parental guidance is suggested and content that is inappropriate for children. The movie rating system often includes brief phrases that describe the type of objectionable content. Television networks include a system of content descriptors that denote the type of objectionable content (e.g., V for violence). The recorded music industry uses a single sticker that warns parents about “explicit content,” with no age-based ratings. No content descriptors are included on the sticker, so parents must investigate the recording to determine exactly what type of content is potentially objectionable.

Perhaps the most elaborate rating system is used by the video game industry's Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). This is an age-based system, identifying games that are appropriate for all players, young children, children older than 10 years old, teens, mature players, or adults only. These ratings are featured in game advertisements, such as the tag line “rated E for everyone” in a television ad for a video game. The ESRB's content descriptors, however, distinguish this rating system from others. One or more of 32 separate phrases can appear next to a game's rating to identify the type of content included (e.g., “strong sexual content,” “blood and gore”).

Several systems exist for rating Internet content, most of which are built into the website's computer code. One common system has been implemented by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). These systems include ratings about the level of violent, sexual, or other mature content. These codes are then read by the filter settings that come with most Web browsers (such as Internet Explorer) or filtering software packages (such as Net Nanny or Cyber Patrol). Adults can set these filters to allow varying levels of violent, sexual, or other content to be downloaded. Different settings can be saved for each computer user, so parents can use stricter filters for child Web surfers. Web pages or sites that do not meet these filter settings are then blocked from view.

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