This information combined with info from the ESRB can give you a pretty good idea of what you’re getting into with a particular game. The reviews themselves give guidance as to what age the game is appropriate for, and there’s a detailed breakdown of gameplay, even going into such helpful tips as whether it’s a game that kids can stop playing immediately without losing their progress (handy if you want to avoid the “But mom, if I quit now I’m going to lose my progress!!” argument). Their reviews can be filtered by age, genre, gaming platform, which particular skills a game uses, and more. I agree with Doug, and one of the best resources for doing more research on games is Common Sense Media. Because of this, I would strongly urge parents to not only look at ESRB ratings, but also do a little more research before deciding on an appropriate game for their child.” While parents may think it’s appropriate for children due to the ‘Teen’ rating, they might not realize how many inappropriate and hateful comments are said over the game’s voice chat. Other ways to do your researchĪccording to Doug Brennan, manager of the blog Digital Addicts, ESRB ratings can be a useful guide for parents, but should not be the only factor used to determine whether a video game is suitable for a child or not. This section really only helps if there are elements that you want to block completely, for example, if you don’t want your child playing games that have any in-game purchases or any user interactions. Plus, since the descriptors give no details, there’s a huge range of behaviors that could fall within those four descriptors. An innocuous game can turn adult very quickly if there are no filters in place for communication with other players. The Interactive Elements section is possibly the most difficult section for parents to navigate, because there’s no way for the ESRB to review online interactions – many happen in real time and depend completely on who your child is playing with. For example, if you don’t mind your child hearing swear words, then perhaps a Content Descriptor about moderate use of profanity wouldn’t stop you from buying the game, but references to sex would. The Content Descriptors can add a lot of context to the age rating. So now that you know what the ratings are based on and where to find them, how do you use them? Not every parent has the same idea of what a 13-year-old should be exposed to, so blindly following the age rating will only get you so far. (Note that searching using the filters and leaving the title blank is a great way to get a list of games that matches up with your criteria.) How to use these ratings Parents can use both the ESRB website and the ESRB app to get information on individual games such as Ratings, Content Descriptors, Interactive Elements, which platforms the games are available for, and a more detailed Ratings Summary that gives a description of the game, along with some examples of why the game received the rating it did.īoth the website and app have a searchable database of rated games, and those searches can be filtered for things like violence or nudity. Ratings can also be found on the ESRB website, or by using the free ESRB app, which is available for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. Ratings are located on the front of a video game’s box, with Content Descriptors and Interactive Elements listed on the back, if applicable. “Users Interact” could mean that players have the ability to text or voice chat with each other, or that players can contribute elements to the game that other players can see, such as maps. “In-Game Purchases” could be anything from skins, to loot boxes, to extra powers that can give you an advantage in the game. These categories are not explained in any more detail on the box. Last, a game’s possible Interactive Elements are broken down into four categories: As of this writing, there are 30 Content Descriptors on the ESRB website. For example, references to alcohol, crude humor, nudity, and violence are all things that could be mentioned in the Content Descriptors section, which appears in a box to the right of the rating. AO (Adults Only 18+) – Everyone age 18 and olderĪ sixth rating, EC (Early Childhood), also appears in search filters and results on both the website and the ESRB app, although it is not listed in the Ratings Guide.Ī seventh rating, RP (Rating Pending), is only used before a physical game has been released and hasn’t received its ESRB rating yet.Ĭontent Descriptors help explain why a game received the rating that it did.M (Mature 17+) – Everyone age 17 and older.E 10+ (Everyone 10+) – Everyone age 10 and older.There are five categories of Ratings listed in the Ratings Guide, to help give parents some age guidance:
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