Regulation, Electronic Games

Early Attempts to Regulate

The first significant attempts to regulate electronic games occurred at the local level in the early 1980s. These early efforts focused on restricting arcades out of concern that they encouraged truancy and delinquent behavior among children and teens. A small group of detractors such as PTA mother Ronnie Lam also voiced concerns about violence and sex in early games, but the graphics were so poor and abstract that few even noticed.

Electronic Games Go to Washington

By the early 1990s, a more realistic generation of electronic games had become popular with children and adolescents, sparking much controversy. Mortal Kombat, a colossally successful fighting game featuring gobs of blood and gruesome finishing maneuvers, delighted fans but shocked parents and politicians, [Page 705]who launched a crusade against electronic games. Beginning in 1983, Senators Joseph Lieberman and Herb Kohl spearheaded hearings investigating the industry. They called representatives from the major game manufacturers in front of Congress and demanded that something be done to protect children from exposure to certain types of content. In addition to the ghastly violence in Mortal Kombat, the sexual portrayals in the full-motion video game, Night Trap, were singled out during the hearings. Under threat of governmental intervention and possible censorship, game producers came up with their own solution. They created an organization known as the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) to represent their interests and through it proposed a game ratings system.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has developed and launched a national ad campaign that includes public service announcements like the one above, which appear in print, online, and on radio and TV. The campaign, featuring the slogan “OK to Play?,” urges parents and others to use both rating symbols and content descriptors in order to make informed computer and video game purchase decisions. The ESRB provides ratings and advertising guidelines for more than 1,000 electronic games per year. Ratings are determined by a consensus of at least three trained evaluators who review videotaped footage of the game as well as a questionnaire filled out by the game's publisher. In addition to the ratings for age groups, there are more than 30 content descriptors that refer to violence, sex, language, nudity, substance abuse, gambling, humor and other potentially sensitive subject matter.

Self-Regulation and the ESRB

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), according to the organization website, is a “selfregulatory body for the interactive entertainment software industry.” It independently rates video and computer games. The ESRB ratings system was received favorably by Senators Lieberman and Kohl and has been praised for being the most comprehensive media ratings scheme. ESRB ratings now appear on the boxes of all major games, with two parts to each rating. The first part, the ratings symbol, suggests the ageappropriateness of a game. Common ratings symbols include E for Everyone, T for Teen, and M for Mature. The second part, content descriptors, indicate specific types of content in a game, usually the one(s) that triggered the ratings symbol. The ESRB has more than 30 common content descriptors indicating multiple varieties of violent, sexual, language, and drug-related content. This ratings system gives parents information to help them decide which games are appropriate for their children.

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