ipl-logo

Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Rating System Effective?

3743 Words15 Pages

EXTENDED ESSAY

“Nearly All Children Spend Time Playing Video Games": The Entertainment Software Rating Board
To what extent is the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating system effective?

Loren Alexis Wilson
Edgewood High School
Candidate Number: 003947-0079
Word Count: 3,581 Abstract
Video games are blamed for many of the tragedies that occur in society. Some people argue that the evolution of video game technology is associated with teenage violence. In an effort to better understand the protections afforded families, I conducted research to better understand the safeguards relative to video game users. In my research, I found that the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), created in an effort to help parents …show more content…

The Rating Summaries include full descriptions and can be extremely helpful to parents who want to closely monitor their children’s video game activities.
Rating Categories
Like the Surgeon General’s warning, the ESRB includes a Rating Category on the front of each packaged video game. Rating Categories suggest age appropriateness of a videogame based on their content and include; Early Childhood (EC), Everyone (E), Everyone +10 (E+10), Teen (T), Mature (M), and Adults Only (AO). Although it is not considered a Rating Category, Rating Pending is the rating administered to video games that have not yet been assigned a final ESRB rating. However, Rating Pending should be replaced with an actual rating once one is assigned.
Despite its rarity, the Early Childhood (EC) rating is assigned to video games with content suitable for children ages 3 and up. Early Childhood games do not contain any material a parent would find inappropriate. A prime example of this would be Sesame Street: Elmo's A-to-Zoo Adventure available on Nintendo Wii. The Sesame Street game teaches letters and numbers through interaction with Elmo and Zoe at the Sesame Street …show more content…

Hart Research Associates, 88% of parents believe the ESRB rating system is either "very helpful" or "somewhat helpful". According to a survey conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, parents said that among all entertainment rating systems (TV, movies, music and games); the ESRB ratings are the most useful, with 91% finding them "very useful" (58%) to "somewhat useful" (33%).
“Parents and physicians should recognize that popular M-rated video games contain a wide range of content and may expose children and adolescents to messages that may negatively influence their perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.”
According to the ESRB president Patricia Vance, the ESRB is partnering up with the PTA to help provide parents with valuable guidance and resources about computer and video games, and is among the most extensive in terms of ground level support for communities nationwide. I find with the steps that ESRB provides, they are as efficient as possible to protect users of video games given the many variables that absolutely cannot be controlled by a

Show More
Related

Brown V. Entertainment Merchants Association: A Case Study

913 Words | 4 Pages

Its been fought over for many years that violent video games should not be given to minors, but teens and minors reply in a different way that of to adults and physiologists. But what does the Supreme Court have to say? One child psychologist claims to believe “violent video—games—which have become increasingly interactive and realistic—could lead minors to commit real-life acts of aggression, and that such games are psychologically damaging to them”(Yee 17). In order to understand the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, one must know that a psychologist believed that violent video games for children lead to aggression later on in life, Each side presented its own view on the case, The impact on this case has changed Americas view on video game distribution to minors.

Read More

Summary Of Christina Lyons Media Violence

997 Words | 4 Pages

“Other researchers theorize that violent video games challenge the brain, allow participants to face their fears, act out aggression in a fantasy world and — in the case of multiplayer games — encourage social behavior. However, few studies have proved such theories” (Lyons). When talking about video game ratings, Lyons made sure to mention that rating M stood for mature, and that the rating E stood for everyone (Lyons). She also mentions that TV-14 means that the show is appropriate for viewers older than the age of 14

Read More

Boss Tweed Research Papers

449 Words | 2 Pages

William Tweed was best known as “Boss Tweed”. He was best known for his sneaky ways and his sneaky ways which helped him find his way into jail. He served some time in jail and even died there. He was an American Politician and with his “Tweed Ring” associates started to financially drain New York City by wrongly taking large amounts of money. Tweed was born the Southeastern part of New York City in 1823.

Read More

Joseph Coleman's Death Research Paper

1886 Words | 8 Pages

People can also take movies too seriously at times. It can make them reenact scenes out of violent and horror movies. One important form of media that every parent should be concerned about is the type of video games that allow their children to play. The content of the games say eighteen and over for a reason. Kids all around the world are minors that play games that are Rated M for mature.

Read More

Theme Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

977 Words | 4 Pages

Video games are well age filtered. On every video game, there is a letter rating as well as a content description, which describes what is shown in the video game. The issue is not with the video games, it is with music. Music does not entertain any form of rating system other than the

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The First Amendment

1855 Words | 8 Pages

EMA was unequivocal in affirming that any legislative attempt to restrict minor’s access to video games must be able to withstand review under strict scrutiny. In order to pass muster, the government must prove that they have a compelling interest in the matter, and legislation must be narrowly drawn to serve that interest. In Brown, Justice Scalia determined that scientific studies showing a correlation between violent video games and violence in minors would not suffice to meet this standard. Thus establishing that the government needs causational evidence before imposing restrictions on minor’s ability to access protected speech. However, such demanding standards of evidence are not always required by the

Read More

The Controversy Of The ESRB Rating System

907 Words | 4 Pages

Two years later, the ESRB Rating system was created in response to the overwhelming controversy of video game violence. The ESRB rating system job is to evaluate and explain the content found in a video game. The rating scale itself consists of six ratings, Early Childhood or EC, Everyone or E, Everyone 10 and up or E10+, Teen or T, Mature 17+ or M, and Adult Only 18+ or Ao. The point of this new system was to allow parents give parents the knowledge of what they were purchasing for the children, and it denies minors from purchasing Mature games by themselves. However, as the 90s continued, these reports of video game addiction and their translation into violence only became more clear.

Read More

How Do Video Games Affect Minor's Behavior

1068 Words | 5 Pages

How video games affects minor’s behavior Bagaskara A. F. Games is a kind of application created to entertain people of all ages, but there are games that is addressed to some portions of the community instead of all of the people. But not all games includes violent elements and it seems like everyone is generalizing all games into the same thing and making accusations of that the games are raising the violent behavior on the younglings. But do they really increase the level of violence among the minors? First thing first, there is plenty of video game genres and it diverse from the educational video games to shooter types of games. Those game genres are rated by the ESRB on the content ratings for the game, they stated that they “assigns age and content ratings for video games and mobile apps, enforces advertising and marketing guidelines for the video game industry, and helps companies implement responsible online and mobile privacy practices.”

Read More

How Does Society Decide Whether A Game Is Worth Playing Scrabble?

1076 Words | 5 Pages

Gaming plays a large role in our society and has for decades. From the age-old card games of Euchre and Go Fish to the newer video games Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, there has been an abundance of game opportunities for all demographics. However, how do we define whether a game is worth playing? Or better yet, how does society decide what games are deemed beneficial for educational reasons? Consequently, there are several studies available to show the moral and the unmoral of game playing.

Read More

Over Age And Content Ratings Essay

1412 Words | 6 Pages

The digital world that engulfs most of the society within the U.S. continues to become increasingly violent. Since the creation of television, new platforms have been developed to display media, such as the internet, social media, and video gaming. Now there are multiple ways people can stream line media and all sorts of information, however, since it is easier for people to get their hands on such content, it could be reaching the wrong crowd. Children are exposed to violent content from a young age and as a result become desensitized to the violence around them or have a skewed perception of reality. This is why the debate over age and content ratings is a controversial one, researchers believe these ratings are important to help parents

Read More

Should Videogames Be Censored

790 Words | 4 Pages

Eventually the children get exposed to such content and start to learn about things like language, and drugs, or even sex. At such a young age they shouldn’t know what these things are but that is what these videogames are exposing them to. According to Prenkert, “one video game named “God of War” on one of the quest the main protagonist in Greece he meets many bare chested women” (438). There are children who watch their older siblings play those types of games and get exposed to the sexual and explicit content and it may be too much for them to handle at such a young age. Some games that don’t censor completely end up putting warnings at the beginning of the game when it loads up.

Read More

Exploring The Effect Of Video Games On Tantrums In Children With Autism

985 Words | 4 Pages

The Effect of Video Games on Tantrums in Children with Autism Name Academic Institution Abstract In recent years, a great deal of scholarly attention has been directed to the effects of video games on children and adolescents, especially with their impact on the children’s predilection towards aggression and violent behaviors. As many of the video games that are currently on the market, such as the Grand Theft Auto series, Minecraft, and World of Warcraft, depict exceptionally graphic violence, the major concern is that the violence within these games desensitizes youth and renders them far less empathetic than they might have been without video games. As the situation now stands, the empirical evidence regarding this possible correlation is inconclusive. To be sure, video games have simply not been around long enough for researchers to derive definitive conclusions about their affect on human behavior.

Read More

Should Kids To Buy Violent Video Games Essay

1247 Words | 5 Pages

Some parents have no idea about technology, so their kids have the chance of going out and purchasing any game of their choice. According to the article, Timothy F. Winter the president of the Parents Television Council says, “For parents and grandparents, most of whom have never seen or played one of these explicit games, the notion of video games violent is likely to conjure up an image akin to a Tom & Jerry or Road Runner cartoon” (para. 2). In other words, some parents are used to older games like Mario cart, Bricks game, Tom & Jerry and much more, so they don’t focus their attention on the kind of games the kids are playing. For example, my mum is a person who never checks up on my brothers when they are playing video game she has no idea about how ultraviolent video games have an impact on kids. So my brother started learning bad behaviors as a result of playing the violent video game.

Read More

Violent Video Games Cause Less Violence

923 Words | 4 Pages

Violent video games have been blamed for everything from bullying to school shootings. Critics of these video games believe they cause people to commit violent acts in real life. These critics, mainly comprised of parents and other responsible adults, don’t agree with what the video games portray. Others say the video games cause less violence and are an outlet for anger and stress. Although violent video games have violent actions in them, teenagers should be able to play violent video games because there isn’t enough evidence to prove they make teens more aggressive, it could prevent violence, and violent video games are a fun and relaxing way to relieve stress and anger.

Read More

Argumentative Essay On Video Games

2232 Words | 9 Pages

Children around the world play adult content video game And many parents say it is bad for their children; however video games can actually help their children learn. Approximately 90% of children in the United States play video games, and more than 90% of those games involve mature content that often includes violence (Park, 2014). There are those that believe video games are detrimental to society, however playing video games including those with mature content can actually be beneficial to both individuals and society by increasing knowledge expanding the ability to react positively at real life situations and improving cognitive thinking skills. Children that play video games not only have the potential to increase their ability to learn right from wrong, and to improve their cognitive thinking skills the game can also increase a child’s knowledge.

Read More

More about Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Rating System Effective?

Related Topics

Open Document