Prominent senators and game industry opponents Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman are supporting the ESRB’s ratings summary strategy.
As part of its unending duty to provide people, specifically parents, with more information about the content of game products, yesterday the Entertainment Software Ratings Board announced a new mobile website and summaries for the ratings of every game rated since July 1 2008.
After hearing of this effort, Senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman chimed in to congratulate the ESRB on promoting customer awareness.
“This new supplement to the ratings is a real gift for parents as we head into this holiday season,” hailed Democrat Hillary Clinton. “Parents need all the information they can get to make more informed decisions about what’s appropriate for their children. These new rating summaries offer more helpful information than ever before to help parents to get involved and get informed.”
Lieberman, who was one of the original congressmen to press for an industry rating system in the early 1990s, added, “For well over a decade I have called upon the videogame industry to inform consumers about the content in videogames so they could make the right choices for their children. One result was the creation of the ESRB rating system… The ESRB has now taken consumer education one step further with their new rating summaries, which provide a greater level of detail about game content to help parents be even more prepared to make informed game selections for their children. I applaud the ESRB for taking this proactive step to inform video game consumers.”
The kind words from industry critics play an important role in the games industry maintaining its independence from government intervention. The ESRB’s actions are possibly the result of the attacks against Manhunt‘s potential “Adults Only” rating from these same characters as well as ongoing government pressure for more transparency and educational material for parents who don’t want children being influenced by mature content. If the ESRB, which is supported by publishers and developers, can continue to improve its ability to reach mainstream consumers, it should someday be seen as equal to the Motion Picture Association of America.
Source: GamePolitics
