1. Adam Thierer
athierer@pff.org
Progress & Freedom Foundation
April 2008
www.pff.org
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2. www.pff.org/parentalcontrols
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3. Outline
(I) Why care about ratings & parental controls?
(II) Current state of ratings
(III) Current state of parental control tools
(IV) Third-party rating efforts
(V) Legal/ regulatory issues
(VI) Future controversies & issues
(VII) The forgotten role of informal household rules
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4. 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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5. 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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6. Ratings
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7. 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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8. 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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9. 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 game’s release.) 9

10. ESRB Content Descriptors
 Alcohol Reference  Nudity
 Animated Blood  Partial Nudity
 Blood  Real Gambling
 Blood and Gore  Sexual Themes
 Cartoon Violence  Sexual Violence
 Comic Mischief  Simulated Gambling
 Crude Humor  Some Adult Assistance May Be Needed
 Drug Reference  Strong Language
 Edutainment  Strong Lyrics
 Fantasy Violence  Strong Sexual Content
 Informational  Suggestive Themes
 Intense Violence  Tobacco Reference
 Language  Use of Drugs
 Lyrics  Use of Alcohol
 Mature Humor  Use of Tobacco
 Mild Violence  Violence
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11. Most Games are Rated “E” or “E 10+”
“E” “E 10+”
“M”
“T”
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12. 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 community’s parents
 produces educational PSAs with policy makers to
build awareness about ESRB system
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13. ESRB Promotional Efforts
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14. 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 14

15. Parental Awareness & Use of ESRB Ratings
100%
89%
90%
Ratings Awareness Ratings Use 85%
83%
80% 78%
74%
72% 71%
70%
70% 67%
60%
53%
49%
50%
43%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1999 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007
Source: Entertainment Software Rating Board, Peter D. Hart Research Associates
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16. 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 don’t like
having their art rated; creates tensions
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17. 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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18. Parental Controls
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19. 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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20. 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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21. Xbox 360
Parental
Controls
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22. Microsoft Vista Controls
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23. 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
 Sony’s 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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24. Third-Party Efforts:
Rise of independent
game rating & review services
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25.  Common Sense Media
www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews
 Gamer Dad
www.gamerdad.com
 What They Play
www.whattheyplay.com
 Children’s Technology Review
www.childrenssoftware.com
 + good user-generated reviews of video games on sites
like Amazon.com and Metacritic.com
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26. 26

27. 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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28. Concluding Thoughts
and a
Look into the Future
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29. 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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30. Advantages of Private Ratings &
Controls vs. Government Regs
Private Ratings & Controls Government Regulation
Can be tailored to “One-size-fits-all”
household needs / values
Immediately effective Usually retroactive
(+ lengthy legal challenges
follow)
Entirely Constitutional Often Unconstitutional
Less prone to special “Heckler’s veto” problem is
interest influence pervasive
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31. 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 Trek’s “holo-deck” is coming to your living room!
 Already seeing more tactile devices coming to market
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32. Appendix:
The forgotten role of
Household Media Rules
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33. 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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34. 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 34

35. 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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36. The Media Food Pyramid: The Importance of a Balanced Media Diet
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