When did they come into use and what caused this?
At some point in the time line of video games it was deemed that games need an a rating system, what games or events in the real world caused action to be taken?
The creation of the ESRB was sparked by the 1993 game Night Trap,
Night trap was a survival horror interactive movie game, released for the Sega CD and PC. The game caused a huge controversy, utilising full motion videos of college girls in what can seen as compromising positions, being attacked by men, sometimes in nothing but their underwear. Below is a video of some of the game play.
As a Direct result of the 9th December 1993 US Senate hearing on conference on the violence in video games, Night Trap was removed form shelves on the 16th December 19933 after being called "shameful", "ultra-violent", "sick", and "disgusting", encouraging an "effort to trap and kill women"4
This game and Mortal Komat, Lethal Enforcers and Doom were the 4 primary factors in the creation of the ESRB rating system.
This was enforced for the prevention of children and young people being exposed to content they should not see, however this also gave developers full rein to develop games targeted at adults with strong violence, for example. - Carmageddon.5
In this game the player had a limited amount of time to complete a care race getting bonus points the more damage done to other cars and hitting pedestrians. Not only violent games were now in development but also games with strong sexual and borderline pornographic content in some instances. An example is Fahrenheit
It is useful having these ratings here, but only if people pay attention to them. My law, companies are not allowed to sell games rated 12,16 and 18 to people under those ages, the 5 and 7 age ratings are a guide.A lot of parents do not take these ratings seriously.
My experience of working in GAME in 2011. If I knew that an game was being bought for a for someone underage I was legally obliged to tell the parent what content was deemed inappropriate in the game, not refuse a sale. One customer got very angry when I didn't accept the money from her child instead of her, as it would have been illegal, even after I explained to her what was in the game she was unfazed that she was buying her 7 year old son an 18 rates game. Some parents however when I told them were shocked that they didn't realise what the game involved. These children rely on their parents naivety of what content is actually in games.
There have been examples of children playing Grand Theft Auto, where their parents have thought it was a driving game, when the are lots of sexual, violence and drugs related references. In one instance, a parent deemed it was suitable game for his 4 year old child didn't engage in any of the game's explicit activities 'He didn't avoid these things because I told him he couldn't try them; it just never occurred to him to commit these acts in the first place.'7
Is more education needed for parents about games? I think that there is, but do these games affect children negatively if they play under age? I certainly played games I was too young for when I was a child, due to my parent naivety, but I do not think it has affected the way I perceive certain things. Does it depend on the game? Most definitely in my opinion, it is all about the content warnings rather than just how old you have to be to play it.
Do violent games rated high affect people mentally in general? This is a subject that has much debate in the media, in the past and in recent times. For example, school shooter Adam Lanza was investigated and found to have a collection of violent video games8 which the media were quick to try and pin his motivations for the tragic crime he committed. However when people talk about this they chose to ignore that he had an even larger collection of family friendly games, and had extensive playtime of Dance Dance Revolution recorded.9 Was he extensively influenced by violent games or were video games used as a scapegoat?
Age ratings within games will always be talking point of the media and controversy, this is what makes it so interesting to me, and it is an important way that video games have changed the world we live in.
1 http://www.childnet.com/young-people/secondary/hot-topics/gaming↩
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_content_rating_system↩
3 http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-870489.html↩
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Trap↩
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmageddon↩
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_%282005_video_game%29↩
7 http://venturebeat.com/2010/06/05/my-four-year-old-son-plays-grand-theft-auto/↩
8 http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/365190/Killer-Adam-Lanza-obsessed-with-violent-video-games↩
9 http://kotaku.com/sandy-hook-killers-video-gaming-obsession-not-what-yo-1471421158↩
Other References
Documentary - Charlie Brooker: Video Games Changed the World
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversieshttp://kotaku.com/sandy-hook-killers-video-gaming-obsession-not-what-yo-1471421158
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/365190/Killer-Adam-Lanza-obsessed-with-violent-video-games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AO-rated_video_games
ttp://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/03/09/should-gaming-age-ratings-be-enforced/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2013/03/26/ftc-video-game-age-ratings/2020719/
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/faq.jsp
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/08/15/poll-should-video-game-ratings-be-legally-enforced-retail#.UptKyOLd5pM
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/UK-PEGI-Video-Game-Ratings-Law,16586.html
http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/287
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