Following up

FiringSquad attempted to contact both the MPAA and the TV Parental Guidelines board to see if they would comment on why those groups do not enforce the ratings on DVD released to stores. In a very brief phone conversation, a representative for the TV Parental Guidelines board told us that it was not in their charter to rate the content of TV shows collected on DVDs. A representative from the MPAA contacted us and told us another person would give us a comment for our article but as of the posting of this feature on our site the MPAA have yet to reach us again to give us their comments.

One person who has been highly critical of the ESRB system is Leland Yee, the California Assemblyman who authored the bill that was signed into law last fall in that state that would ban the sales of certain games with violent content to minors (the law is currently not being enforced pending the conclusion of a court case started by the video/PC game industry). When the study of content descriptions in M-rated games was issued by Harvard earlier this month, Yee was quick to send out a press release stating, "This is yet another piece of evidence showing that the current rating system just doesn’t work. I have urged the industry on numerous occasions to appropriately rate and disclose the content of M-rated video games. Yet, time and time again we have seen that parents can’t trust the ratings; now this study shows they can’t trust the content descriptors either.”

FiringSquad sent over the results of our informal survey of video and PC game ratings on boxes and comparing them to the ratings (or lack thereof) on DVD boxes for movies and TV shows. His press secretary sent over an email response from Yee:

The ESRB has a history of failing our parents. The FTC has done numerous studies showing that 13-16 olds can easily purchase M-rated video games at retailers. Yet, those same children have a far more difficult time purchasing R-rated movies. The ESRB rating board fails to view the entire contents of game before giving it an appropriate rating, and thus incidents like Hot Coffee happen. They have never rated a game AO for violent content despite their own rating descriptor of AO for "graphic depictions of violence". Apparently, Manhunt, GTA, Postal, etc. do not include "graphic depictions of violence".

"Violent video games have a far greater effect on children than violent movies. First, parents can easily view a movie and determine whether or not is appropriate for their child, whereas a video game can include hundreds of hours of game play and require even more time to master the game and participate in the most violent scenes. Unfortunately, most parents today simply do not have that kind of time. Second, video games are interactive and therefore a much greater learning tool than the passive watching of a movie, listening to music, or reading a book. This can have positive impacts as well. Consider our teachers who use interactive devices and techniques all the time to help kids learn to read, do math, and become proficient in computers. However, when the interactive device is teaching our kids the technical skills to stalk, maim, and destroy other human beings, than the effect can be quite negative.