ESRB Ratings Promoted by Georgia Attorney General

fiorenza writes "At least one state is forgoing the process of cooking up gaming legislation only to have it thrown out in the courts. Georgia is working with the ESRB to educate parents in the state about game ratings, with the state's Attorney General leading up the charge. The obvious question is, why wasn't this tried first, before the mad rush to pass laws that never stand judicial review on account of first amendment issues? The article suggests that similar cooperative announcements from other states may soon follow."

Comments

Now if only the parents would cooperate...

[tacarat]

You know, try to find out what their kids are playing. I think parents that buy games for thier kids and complain about all of the ESRB labeled "mature" issues in said games, such as sex and violence, should just be brought up on child neglect charges. Not the stores. Not the game companies. It's about the same as buying a 12 year old hardcore pornography and then trying to sue the publisher.

I think the sad part of American culture right now is that I'm probably not the only one to think that's not so implausible.

Re:Now if only the parents would cooperate...

[tacarat]

I was shooting for an example of dumb parenting, not so much hardcore porn's morality. How about sueing a company that makes cleaning chemicals after buying their product and feeding it to the kid who gets sick and dies? The blame would go to the parent for whatever happens afterwards, not to company (which had warning labels) or the store (which sold it to an adult). My point focused on the parents that buy and complain about what their kids are exposed to, not the parents that are only buying the game.

Re:Now if only the parents would cooperate...

[Chosen Reject]

You missed the important part. He said "parents that buy games for thier kids and complain about all of the ESRB labeled "mature" issues in said games...should just be brought up on child neglect charges." (emphasis mine).

If someone wants to buy their kid a game or a movie or a book, that is their own prerogative. But if you buy the kid a game, then complain about it then you are just dumb. And in that situation, you obviously did not want your kid playing such a game, yet you bought it anyway, even though it was clearly labelled, you weren't just negligent, you were a willful accomplice. The GP was being too kind. You should be charged as willfully contributing to the deliquency of a minor, using your own standards.

Now if you buy an M-rated game for your kid and never complain, then those charges aren't brought against you. But by complaining even though you bought the game, then you have shown you are a bad parent.

I saw it in action this Tuesday

[Total_Wimp]

I was in an EBgames shop and two teenage boys were trying to buy a game. The clerk refused to sell it to them because they looked under age and had no ID with them (or didn't want to produce it). They argued. They begged. They left without the game. They cussed loudly on their way out.

The clerk, backed up by at least one other clerk on duty and a little shaken by the situation, said she was just trying to do her job, and that was the policy of the store. I applaude the store and I applaude the clerk.

Knowing that stores will not routinely sell mature games to minors helps me feel that I have backup. Knowing theatres won't routinely let underage kids into see R rated movies helps me feel I have backup. It's easy for me to override these hurdles. I just buy the game or I take her to the movie. But it's my choice.

I know that many times they get ratings wrong. It's an imperfect system. But it gives me someplace to start, a default position if you will. If I see the game is labled as mature, I can then investigate furhter to see if I'd really find it objectionable. My daughter is 17 so this is no longer really an issue for us, but I would have been somewhat miffed if she had been sold Grand Theft Auto when she was 14. On the other hand, I routinely let her play Unreal Tournament at an even younger age because by my personal standards, its less of an issue. That's my choice as a father, the choice to allow my daughter to use media of a mature nature, or to just say no. The ratings help me do that, and I'm glad they're helping others as well.

Re:I saw it in action this Tuesday

[Rachel Lucid]

Please. I'm 20 and female and I've only heard that a few times in the past months. O_o

Re:I saw it in action this Tuesday

[the_crowing]

About 2 months ago I was in EB games purchasing Half-Life:Anthology, an M-rated game, and upon handing the game to the clerk I was asked for a piece of ID to ensure that I was at least 17 years of age. I was a little shocked at this because it was the first time I had ben IDed while purchasing a video game, however, I was actually glad that I got IDed because I know that if I got IDed, then they must be doing the same to a lot of people and effectively preventing "under-aged" kids from purchasing violent or sexualy explicit video games.

Being a 20-year-old, I had no problem with the purchase, but this actually came as a breath of fresh air for me to see someone actually taking steps to prevent kids from being exposed to explicit content and trying to releave the games industry of the constant, misdirected accusations that it has been getting over the pat few years.

Re:Oh come on

[RESPAWN]

It's not so much a matter of education what the ratings mean as it is educating the masses as to their existance. What we really need is an awareness campaign. Too many parents are probably not even aware that there are ratings on video games (despite the ratings clearly plastered on the boxes). I applaud the state of Georgia for this matter. If I were registered to vote here instead of my home state (I currently reside in Georgia), the attorney general would definitely get my vote.

Here's hoping that more campaigns such as these start to spring up in more states. Maybe once enough people are aware of the ratings system, they can stop with these needless, and trivial lawsuits against the gaming companies.

I'm curious: did the movie industry have these same problems getting their ratings system "adopted" by the public?

Re:Ah, some sanity for a change.

[Brothernone]

I just send him a nice letter(yes, hand written) and I'm not his constituant. In a momment i'll be doing the same to my Gov/AG and point out his example. What we need in the our government right now is more people like Baker. I applaude his understanding and hope that more programs spring up. This is a good start to pointing out that it's not the games that are causing violent children. The more people are aware and understand the idea behind the ESRB ratings the better. The more people that understand they have to take responsibility for the media their children are exposed to the better. I'm happy, and I can only hope that more people notice what is happening here.

Re:In the case of Georgia...

[twistedsymphony]

I'm actually impressed... Not only that a state is trying the more appropriate method before resorting to passing more laws but even more so that it's Georgia of all states that is leading by example. Nothing against Georgia but it's not one of the states I would have guessed to be the first for something like this.

Because

[Dachannien]

The obvious question is, why wasn't this tried first, before the mad rush to pass laws that never stand judicial review on account of first amendment issues?

Because rational thought doesn't earn votes.

Re:In the case of Georgia...

[Irish_Samurai]

I'm not targeting you, but I really hate the perception people have of Georgia. We are not all dumb ass rednecks and uneducated slave decendants. That is an ignorant misconception.

• Anyone get a job off ComputerJobs.com? That's here.
• The CDC is here.
• We have the largest concentration of College educated African-Americans in the United States.
• We like to design lotsa weapons at Lockheed-Martin
• Hartsfield-Jackson, the worlds busiest airport is here.
• Georgia Tech and Emory are no slouch schools
• We are expecting 3% annual job growth through 2008
• Turner Broacasting Systems, CNN, Earthlink, Coca-Cola, UPS, Manhattan Associates, Radiant Systems, Home Depot, Newell-Rubbermaid, Southern Company, Georgia-Pacific, Bell South, Convergent Media Systems, and Delta are all headquartered here.

Hell, I can go on and on - read a report here. We may not be Silcon Valley, but the tech community here is the largest in the South East. And we do regularly pull talent from out West and up North.

Being that we have such a technically savvy, young population - it makes perfect sense that we would try this( the median age here is 33). Atlanta is almost completely populated by the gamer demographic - our reps know this. Also, being a southern state, our reps have had had to deal with Federal gun control laws - they personally know what it's like to have restrictions thrown on them. They aren't to quick to do it themselves.

Oh, and I'll pit a Georgia Southern Belle against any Manhattan Socialite or West Coast hottie any day - AND rumor has it girls outnumber the guys almost 2 to 1 in Atlanta.

I LOVE it here.