IT'S A SECRETMany kids no longer go out to a store and purchase a game to play on their PlayStation or Xbox. Instead, they sign up either to play online or to have the game delivered through a digital download. This leaves parents clueless as to whether their little darlings are playing an age appropriate game or if they are spending their free time traversing a violent virtual universe, interacting with adults and sharing personal information. A new “Digital Rating Service” from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) aims to assign ratings to all digitally delivered games. This service will first be put into use for downloadable games available from a number of computer and video game platforms including Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation Certified devices, Nintendo eShop, Wii Shop Channel and Windows 8, with others to follow. “Consumers have grown accustomed to using ESRB ratings when making decisions about the appropriateness of the games their families play. With the explosion of devices from which consumers can access games today, our goal is to ensure that those same tools are available everywhere games can be found,” said ESRB President Patricia Vance. Consumer research shows that at least two thirds of parents consider it essential that a rating system provide disclosure about the collection and/or sharing of personal information with third parties, the sharing of a user's location and the ability to track a user's location, and consider these elements just as important as being informed about content and age-appropriateness. As a result, ESRB's Digital Rating Service not only assigns the familiar ESRB Rating Category and Content Descriptors that consumers already know, but also generates standardized notices, called “Interactive Elements,” which include: l SHARES INFO — This indicates that user-provided personal information (e.g., e-mail address, phone number, credit card info, etc.) is shared with third parties; l SHARES LOCATION — This indicates the ability to display the user's location to other users; l USERS INTERACT — This indicates possible exposure to unfiltered/uncensored user-generated content, including user-to-user communications and media sharing via social media and networks. In addition to providing critical guidance to parents before the game is accessed, all three parts of a game's rating information -Rating Category, Content Descriptors and Interactive Elements — can also be mapped to parental controls to restrict access by these criteria. For parents interested in checking games that their children may already be playing, complete game rating information is always available by searching the ESRB website at ESRB.org.
