FTC Report Praises, Spanks Video Game Industry

"The video game industry generally provides clear and prominent disclosure of rating information in advertising; however, the ESRB has not adopted the Commission’s previous recommendation that content descriptors for games be placed on the front of game packaging… many parents still believe the system can do more to inform them about the level of violence in some games."

How hard is it to turn the game case over and see the rating information on the back?

"The video game industry generally provides clear and prominent disclosure of rating information in advertising; however, the ESRB has not adopted the Commission’s previous recommendation that content descriptors for games be placed on the front of game packaging… many parents still believe the system can do more to inform them about the level of violence in some games."

I don't understand. Having the rating on the front of the box and a descriptor on the back is not enough? The movie industry does not even have a rating on the front of the box and the rating/descriptor if freakishly small and hard to read on the back.

Can any oone say "double standard"?

E. Zachary Knight
books are not the current scapegoat looking at "restrictions" on a governmental level, if books where they would be labeled by age by now.

Pawsie
it seems to me they are stretching a bit they have yet to btch at the movie indutry for showing ads for "older than the general audience" of the web site.
when is it the web site fault for showing the gruesome ads? >

Sorry to double post but to continue from before,

The FTC does not have jurisdiction over books. If there was a need for them to expand their jurisdiction to books tehy would be given it. Yet there is no need to do so as books are well established.

Well then Karmakin, how do you propose we rate and restrict books?

As far as I know, books are pretty straight forward. There is never a question as to who the book is written for as stores and libraries have clearly defined age based sections. Books that are not appropriate for kids are not put in the kids books section.

With movies, music and games it is different. G and R movies are both shown in the same theatre on screen next to each other. the same DVDs are across the aisle from each other in the store. Music CDs are next to each other at the store. M and E video games are next to each other in the store. So here you see the difference.

Books have moved beyond the need for ratings. They have had centuries to work out demographics and marketing to the proper demographic.

So don't trash a report that you have not even read. This report is the best thing to come from a government body in years when it comes to entertainment.

Does the FTC understand that games are given voluntarily to the ESRB to rate? If phone companies don't want their games rated, there's nothing the ESRB can do about it. Also, correct me if i'm wrong, but cell phone games aren't all that advanced, and there's not a lot of blood in those games.

The Blasphemy of thy devil!

well i say that if a parent doesnt have enough brains or commen sense to look at lets say "Grand theft auto san andreas" and nothing clicks up there saying "hmmm maybe this isnt a good game for little johnny"

then there is nothing that can be done except eliminate them from the gene pool

"How hard is it to turn the game case over and see the rating information on the back?"


hey i'll be the moron parent

"excuse me but i do not have the time to go and turn the case over when i shouldnt have to at all.As a parent i'm far to lazy and ignorant to actully parent my child i have a job i have to do so the goverment can do it for me so i can take yoga and sleep with my husbands fishing buddies"


*end sarcasm*

how can one really tell the age of people going on a website? In all honestly, you can't. You can poll the age and get numbers, but how accurate is really the question. I know the sites like gamefaqs have people who are immature and will joke around (I might but im not a frequent visitor).

Advertising, I have to lol at that. At least gaming ads don't come up when a pop-up appears...oh, thats what the other medias do (or the people that support them, which is why I

@finaleve


well maybe they will just use the usual "children are going to the sites just like children are the main demographic for video games"

@Beemooh

The highest rating for movies is not (R). It's NC-17 who could be considered the equivalent of AO for games like M can be considered the equivalent of R.

Dennis, there is nothing in this report that would be considered a "spank" on the video game industry. Instead, it just seemed like a subtle suggestion that the content descriptors be placed on the front of games, not a "spanking" of any kind. In fact, reading the report, it seemed pretty favorable towards the video game industry. And it does mention some of the things that lawmakers like Brownback want done - like having raters play through the entire game. The report does in fact mention the video game industry's response that time (50 - 100 hours) and skills are needed to achieve this and only skilled gamers would then be able to do rate the games, thus potentially making the rating system less accurate as far as parental opinion, since members of the general public won't be used to rate the games. It also, once again, shows that children are less likely to purchase M rated games, than R rated and unrated movies, and music CDs with labels on them. The percentage of kids purchasing M rated games is now almost identical to the number of kids purchasing R rated movie theater tickets, and the movie industry's rating system is considered the "golden standard" of ratings by organizations. Now the ESRB critics no longer have a leg to stand on if they have been telling us the MPAA is the best rating system, yet children are just as likely to be turned away from purchasing M rated games as they are purchasing R rated theater tickets.

If the report "spanks" anyone, I would say it spanks lawmakers like Illinois governor Blagojevich, Liar Leland Yee, and others like them, as these individuals have used the FTC reports in the past to show us that M rated video games are falling into childrens' hands too often, yet the same report has always shown that children are getting their hands on R rated movies and CDs with parental advisory warning labels on them much more often. This new report shows exactly that, yet again. How many more reports must be done before these clown lawmakers finally see that there is no justifying the regulation of only video games, while the other industries deserve to remain regulation free?

I retract my first statement. I have performed a more thourough reading of the actualu report. My first comment was based of of GP's excerpts (Bad GP for inciting a riot) Here is a later quote from the report:

"For product packaging, the movie industry typically places the movie’s rating and rating reasons on the back of each video and DVD. Although the electronic game industry places the rating on the front of the package, it still places the content descriptors on the back. The Commission renews its recommendation that both industries consider placing all of the rating information prominently on the front of product packaging to make that information more visible to parents. Moreover, the Commission continues to recommend that the music industry consider providing more information on product packaging and in advertising as to why a particular recording has been labeled with a Parental Advisory. Sony BMG’s use of an enhanced label that includes additional information is a good model for others to follow."

As for the report, it covers the Movie, Music and Game industries. Acording to the report, the Game industry is doing the best job at rating and enforcing the ratings. The movie and music industries have poor enforcement rate. With both retailers allowed about 70% of under-age kids buy R-rated movies and PAL music, while game retailers allowed about 42% of under-aged kids to buy M-rated games.

Over all the FTC is pretty positive about the game industry. They have pointed out that the movie and music industries could learn a few lessons from the games industry.

They do have a couple of major/minor beefs with the game industry about mobile phone games not having ratings and the industry advertising M-rated games on websites with a user ration of 45% as under 17 years old.

"The video game industry generally provides clear and prominent disclosure of rating information in advertising; however, the ESRB has not adopted the Commission’s previous recommendation that content descriptors for games be placed on the front of game packaging… many parents still believe the system can do more to inform them about the level of violence in some games."

because Parents can't turn the game box over? i didn't know we had lost the ability to turn things using our hands. what a sad day this must be for the human race, we'll never find anything on the other side again.

I'm not so sure that the report was aimed primarily at the ESRB as the video game industry as a whole.

Frankly, I kind of understand their concerns. Sure, they try to keep the games out of the hands of the kids...but, they sure don't seem shy about throwing images of the game content, that which has earned the M rating, onto TV shows and internet sites and other places. IF the industry really does want to improve it's image, taking a few "common sense" steps might be advisable.

Yes, if kids want to, they can find the stuff. That's not the question. It's also a fact that if the kids want an M game, they'll find a way to buy or play it. I just think that IF the industry really wants to tackle these issues and clean up the way it is seen, then it needs to be careful of showing its own double standard.

I get enough of that from the government...I don't need that hypocrasy from my entertainment sources. I'm looking at you as well, TV and Movie industries...

Maybe I missed something here but since when is the placement of ads, on websites or elsewhere part of the ESRB's mandate? Rate the game certainly but that's pretty much it. The ESRB doesn't sell the games or make the games or advertise the games.

Never underestimate the power of stupidity for while genius has limitations, stupidity knows no bounds.

[...] The problem, when it comes to the selling of games to underage kids, isn’t at the publisher’s or developer’s feet, but at retailer’s feet. They are the ones who are the last point of contact for a physical (or digital) product and the ones who are responsible for the actual selling of the product. Now, it may be that the games are marketed towards a particular demographic, but the actual responsibility of final sale falls to those in retail who make a rather nice markup on new and used game products. Instead of focusing his efforts on Microsoft, Thompson should really be focusing his efforts on the retailers, who have actually been doing  a lot better with regards to sales to minors lately, according to a recent FTC report. Why is Halo 3 a target? Because it’s got a lot of media exposure right now and is a game franchise that is known to have many players under the recommended age playing online. [...]