Why care about ratings & parental controls? Current state o

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Video Games, Ratings, Parental Controls,
Public Policy Where Do We Stand?

• Adam Thierer
• athierer_at_pff.org
• Progress Freedom Foundation
• April 2008
• www.pff.org

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All materials in this presentation are available
in this free PFF report
Version 3.0

• www.pff.org/parentalcontrols

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Outline

• Why care about ratings parental controls?
• Current state of ratings
• Current state of parental control tools
• Third-party rating efforts
• Legal/ regulatory issues
• Future controversies issues
• The forgotten role of informal household rules

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Why Care about Ratings Parental Controls?

• Recent video game and Internet legal cases
  suggest a major jurisprudential shift
• Courts have
• (a) rejected most harm to minors theories
• (b) employed the less restrictive means test
• regulation must yield to private alternatives
  if they are available and effective (Q but what
  is effective?)

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That means

• Courts have largely foreclosed government
  censorship of most media and placed
  responsibility over what enters the home squarely
  in the hands of parents
• This is why parental control tools and methods
  are more important than ever before
• But, future policy debates could hinge on
  continued effectiveness of ratings parental
  controls

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Ratings
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What makes for a good rating system?

• The purpose of a rating system is to
• (1) convey information about a given media
  product to consumers (especially parents),
• (2) so that they are able to make an informed
  judgment about the wisdom of consuming that
  media, or allowing children to consume it.
• In other words, a good rating system INFORMS and
  EMPOWERS
• A rating system is NOT a tool to clean up or
  self-censor media

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The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)

• Established in 1994
• Rates approximately 1,000 games per year
• Virtually every game produced for retail sale is
  rated
• 7 rating symbols over 30 content descriptors
• Both ratings and descriptors have evolved
  slightly over time

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ESRB Game Ratings

• EARLY CHILDHOOD Titles rated EC have content
  that may be suitable for ages 3 and older.
  Contains no material that parents would find
  inappropriate.
• EVERYONE Titles rated E have content that may
  be suitable for ages 6 and older. Titles in this
  category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or
  mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild
  language.
• EVERYONE 10 Titles rated E10 have content
  that may be suitable for ages 10 and older.
  Titles in this category may contain more cartoon,
  fantasy or mild violence, mild language, and/or
  minimal suggestive themes.
• TEEN Titles rated T have content that may be
  suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in this
  category may contain violence, suggestive themes,
  crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling,
  and/or infrequent use of strong language.
• MATURE Titles rated M have content that may be
  suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in
  this category may contain intense violence, blood
  and gore, sexual content, and/or strong language.
  
• ADULTS ONLY Titles rated AO have content that
  should only be played by persons 18 years and
  older. Titles in this category may include
  prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or
  graphic sexual content and nudity.
• RATING PENDING Titles listed as RP have been
  submitted to the ESRB and are awaiting final
  rating. (This symbol appears only in advertising
  prior to a games release.)

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ESRB Content Descriptors

• Alcohol Reference
• Animated Blood
• Blood
• Blood and Gore
• Cartoon Violence
• Comic Mischief
• Crude Humor
• Drug Reference
• Edutainment
• Fantasy Violence
• Informational
• Intense Violence
• Language
• Lyrics
• Mature Humor
• Mild Violence

• Nudity
• Partial Nudity
• Real Gambling
• Sexual Themes
• Sexual Violence
• Simulated Gambling
• Some Adult Assistance May Be Needed
• Strong Language
• Strong Lyrics
• Strong Sexual Content
• Suggestive Themes
• Tobacco Reference
• Use of Drugs
• Use of Alcohol
• Use of Tobacco
• Violence

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Most Games are Rated E or E 10
E
E 10
M
T
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ESRB also

• operates an Advertising Review Council (ARC) that
  promotes and monitors advertising and marketing
  practices in the gaming industry.
• Principles for Responsible Advertising
• Advertising Code of Conduct
• works with retailers to educate
• OK to Play campaign
• has an educational partnership with the
  Parent-Teacher Association to encourage and
  enable state and local PTAs to educate their
  communitys parents
• produces educational PSAs with policy makers to
  build awareness about ESRB system

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ESRB Promotional Efforts
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Relative Strengths of the ESRB

• Most comprehensive industry-led media rating
  labeling system to date
• professional game content is all being labeled
• Focus on content descriptors versus ratings
  differentiates the ESRB provides much more
  information to parents
• A lot of parents are aware of it and use it
• Of course, the price tag of games helps!
• 40-60 price tag means parents pay more
  attention
• power of the purse more prevalent with games
  than other media content

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Parental Awareness Use of ESRB Ratings
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Challenges for ESRB system

• 1 challenge Retailer compliance
• Constant need to train and retrain retail clerks
  to enforce system at point of sale
• Many clerks are young themselves friends of
  buyers
• System often judged by unique outliers (ex
  Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt)
• Unfair like judging all books by the Unibomber
  manifesto!
• Most games are acceptable for young kids
• Keeping game developers happy is hard!
• The artists who create these games often dont
  like having their art rated creates tensions

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ESRB Challenges (cont.)

• Social science critiques
• some psychologists or media critics allege
• Failure to account for supposed harm to cognitive
  development of minors
• Ratings creep
• Legal / regulatory challenges
• Constant stream of state federal legislation
• (discussed in concluding section on Future
  Trends)
• Seemingly endless legal cycle
• 10 major cases so far, all won by industry

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Parental Controls
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Game Console Controls

• All major gaming consoles (Microsoft, Sony,
  Nintendo) have embedded parental controls tools
• can block by both ESRB and MPAA ratings (via
  metadata tags)
• allow parents to enter the ESRB rating level that
  they believe is acceptable for their children.
  Once they do so, no game rated above that level
  can be played on the console
• Even controls for massive, multiplayer online
  gaming
• Ex XBOX 360 can block chat, restrict via a
  buddies list, and block online purchases
• Microsoft Vista offers similar gaming controls

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How the Xbox 360 gets it right

• Importance of out-of-the-box parental controls
  experience
• Bundled ESRB rating card clear manual
• Online support/ manuals
• Chat restrictions
• Buying restrictions
• Buddy lists can be easily monitored
• Family timer now offered (limits game time)

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Xbox 360 Parental Controls
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Microsoft Vista Controls
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Other consoles

• Nintendo (Wii) Sony (PS3) not quite as
  sophisticated as the Xbox, but basic controls are
  included in both systems
• Can filter by rating and block chat purchases
• Sonys PS3 controls need some work
• Strange 1-11 rating matrix not explained well
  in manual
• Manual online site lacks details little
  assistance
• More difficult to set up out of the box

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Third-Party EffortsRise of independent game
rating review services
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• Common Sense Media
• www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews
• Gamer Dad
• www.gamerdad.com
• What They Play
• www.whattheyplay.com
• Childrens Technology Review
• www.childrenssoftware.com
• good user-generated reviews of video games on
  sites like Amazon.com and Metacritic.com

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Benefit of independent rating review sites

• Most obviously, not industry affiliated
• Wealth of divergent views many from average
  parents (and sometimes even kids)
• Creates equivalent of a shadow ratings process
• a check / watchdog for the ESRB
• But.. none are as comprehensive as the ESRB
  many games not considered by these sites
  they focus mostly on popular titles

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Concluding Thoughtsand a Look into the Future
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Some thoughts about ratings and technical
controls

• No rating system is perfect and no parental
  control tool is foolproof
• Rating and content-labeling efforts are not an
  exact science rating art is not like solving
  mathematical equations
• But ratings and parental control tools need not
  be perfect to be preferable to government
  regulation
• That is particularly true because of the First
  Amendment values at stake here
• Moreover, private ratings and controls have many
  advantages over government regulation

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Advantages of Private Ratings Controls vs.
Government Regs
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Future issues

• (1) renewed push for universal media ratings? or
  just
• (2) Oversight of ESRB by Congress or non-profit /
  academic groups?
• (3) More FTC oversight of retailer enforcement?
• FTC already conducts secret shopper surveys
  report
• (4) Mandatory age verification for MMOGs online
  activities?
• (5) Mandatory parental controls defaults (i.e,
  controls forced ON out of box, requiring
  parents to opt out of controls)
• (6) What happens when AO games hit consoles?
• (7) What about virtual reality games?
• Star Treks holo-deck is coming to your living
  room!
• Already seeing more tactile devices coming to
  market

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Appendix The forgotten role ofHousehold Media
Rules
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Household Media Rules

• Any non-technical method of controlling media
  consumption
• A frequently overlooked part of the parental
  controls story
• In many ways, household efforts represent the
  most important steps that most parents can take
  in dealing with potentially objectionable content
  or teaching their children how to be sensible,
  savvy media consumers, and
• To the extent that many households never take
  advantage of technical controls, it is likely
  because they rely instead on informal household
  media rules
• In a nutshell Parents are parenting!

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Taxonomy of Household Media Rules

• 1) Where Rules
• Pew survey 74 of homes with teenagers have
  their computers in an open family area
• 2) When and How Much Rules
• Pew survey 59 of parents limit the amount of
  time their children can spend playing video
  games and 69 percent limit how much time their
  children can spend online
• 3) Under What Condition Rules
• 4) What Rules
• Pew survey 67 of parents already have rules for
  the kinds of video games they can play

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Regardless of other issues or disagreements,we
all need to think about how video games fit into
a balanced media diet
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The Media Food Pyramid The Importance of a
Balanced Media Diet