June is Rating Awareness Month

June 3, 2010 -

The Coalition of Entertainment Retail Trade Associations (CERTA) has once again billed June as “Entertainment Ratings and Labeling Awareness Month.”

The organization of organizations selected June as the month for its annual initiative since it is the kickoff to summer, when “young people have more free time to enjoy movies, music and videogames.”

The group offers the following tips to parents looking to ensure their children only view age appropriate material:

•Look for the movie or video game rating and content descriptors or the parental advisory label on music;

• Watch the movie, listen to the music, or play the video game with your child;

• Communicate with your children about what the entertainment is about and what they can learn from it;

• Set appropriate limits and prevent entertainment from interfering with duties such as homework and chores; and

• Make full use of the parental control features of new-generation video game consoles and Blu-ray and DVD players to control the video games and movies played on those systems based on their ratings.

CERTA is comprised of The Digital Media Association (DiMA), Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA), National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO).

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Comments

Re: June is Rating Awareness Month

Submitted by Bennett Beeny on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 10:45.

It's fine to remind parents of some of this stuff, but the fact is, no mainstream (i.e 'rated') movie, video game or song has ever been shown to be at all damaging to kids. Since that's the case, ratings and parental controls are irrelevant. I'm all for watching, playing and listening with my kid - do it all the time. I'm also for communicating, discussing themes, setting limits and making sure the kid gets homework done - do that stuff every day too. And I even agree that some media are more appropriate for older kids - but these media (porn for example) aren't available to children in the first place.

But ratings and parental controls? Why? Why read ratings that are irrelevant? Why control stuff that's never been shown to be anything but completely harmless? It's a waste of my time to even consider such nonsense.

Re: June is Rating Awareness Month

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 10:54.

And you are completely free to disregard all such ratings and parental control systems. No one is forcing you to use them. So why are you complaining as if someone were? What harm is it to you that the parents of some other child have decided they would rather not have their kid headshotting zombies or storming the shores of Normandy?

but these media (porn for example) aren't available to children in the first place.

I guess you have never heard of Google.

E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower

Shout box

Monte: trolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm

Monte: Papa: Not the first time we've had a journalism scandals before, but the harassment never got close to this level; the difference with this scandal is that feminists are involved. Without the feminist angle, their would be A LOT less harrassment10/18/2014 - 9:15pm

Papa Midnight: Monte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm

Avalongod: I think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm

Avalongod: @Monte, well the trolls made death threats that came to police (and media attention). I think this is tapping into a larger issue outside of games about how women are treated in society (like all the "real rape" stuff during the last election)10/18/2014 - 3:28pm

Wonderkarp: Zippy : Havent tried the PS4 controller. might later.10/18/2014 - 2:37pm

Monte: Seirously, If Quinn was not involved and GG was instead about something like the Mordor Marketing contracts, the trolling would have never grown so vile and disgusting. There have been plenty of movements in the past that never sufferred from behavior..10/18/2014 - 1:57pm

Monte: We have seen scandel's before but the trolling has never been as vile as what we see with GG. Trolls usually have such a tiny voice you can barely notice them, but its like moths to a flame whenever femistist are involved.10/18/2014 - 1:53pm

ZippyDSMlee: Wonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm

MaskedPixelante: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327940/ Night Dive starts charging for freeware.10/18/2014 - 12:21pm

Matthew Wilson: the sad thing is there are trolls on both sides of this. people need to stop acting like their side is so pure.10/18/2014 - 12:19pm

MechaTama31: So, only speak out on a scandal that hasn't attracted trolls? I wouldn't hold my breath...10/18/2014 - 10:49am

Monte: I feel like GG just needs to die. The movement is FAR to tainted by hatred and BS for it to be useful for any conversation. Let GG die, and then rally behind the NEXT gaming journalism scandal, and start the conversation fresh.10/18/2014 - 10:33am

quiknkold: and we dont have a Dovakin to call a cease fire10/17/2014 - 7:37pm

quiknkold: The whole thing is Futile. Both sides are so buried deep in their trenchs that there isnt a conversation. Its just Finger Pointing, Name Calling, Doxxing, Threats. there needs to be a serious conversation, and GG isnt it.10/17/2014 - 7:37pm

quiknkold: I thought it was a good article. Jeff is right. I feel like GamerGate did destroy its message. I am for Ethics in game journalism, but man. so much hate. and its on both sides. I've seen some awful stuff spewed on twitter. Its a big reason why I exited..10/17/2014 - 7:34pm

Matthew Wilson: while he focused on gg, he did call out both sides crap.10/17/2014 - 7:18pm

Papa Midnight: That was a damn good read offered by Jeff Gertsmann.10/17/2014 - 7:17pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/letter-from-the-editor-10-17-2014/1100-5049/ deferentially a nice write up.10/17/2014 - 6:44pm

james_fudge: I think Evan killed it. He's a great guy and super smart.10/17/2014 - 6:38pm

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