The ESRB Rating System

The rise of violence–most notably in America–has brought back the age of question of does violence in video games invite our youth into a violent enough mindset to commit unspeakable acts? This question always peeves me because people talk about violent games and the banned book list, but no one ever talks about the rediculous amount of violence in movies and television. If you want to know what’s just as responsible, it’s the movies.

Here’s the thing though: movies and television have a rating system to help hopeless parents from accidentally exposing their kids to something that perhaps they shouldn’t. That’s why it’s easier to navigate movies, right?

I remember being 15 and having my mom’s friend buy our tickets to see the remake of Evil Dead beacuse it was rated R, and an adult had to be present to allow us entry. Of course there are ways to sneak around it, but a parent concerned for what their kid is watching can rest easy that it’s not always a walk in the park to access Rated R content.

And this is why, ladies and gentlemen, video games ALSO have their own rating system called the ESRB, or Entertainment Software Rating Board. This puts restrictions in place to help safeguard our youth from accessing games inappropriate for their age.

How do you interpret the ESRB Rating?

We’re going to do the quick and dirty description for the ESRB rating. First, let’s compare the ratings of video games to movie ratings, since most people are familiar with what content is and isn’t allowed to earn a certain rating.

As you can see, there’s more emphasis on the younger side, making careful to organize itself so parents can know what games aren’t and are approriate for their children.

What goes into consideration for deciding an ESRB Rating

What makes video games the boogy man of the entertainment industry is participation vs observation. So it’s easy to see why some people are more scared about video games affecting a persons than a movie. Though in my opinion one is no better or worse than the other.

So what goes in? Let’s take a quick look, and compare it to movie ratings.

First, I’d like to add that the ESRB has their own website where I’m getting all of this information. Looking for the movie information has proved more work than not, and the most comprehensive list I could find was on wikipedia.

Is the System Perfect?

No, not by any means. I am sure there are games that are rated too low or too high just like we see in movies. Which is why it’s important to stay aware. Metal Gear and Hamilton are both intellectual properties that can be consumed by kids, despite the fact both include a lot of violence among other things.

But we need to cut it out in blaming video games for our youth problem. We have an indepth system of organization specifically to protect our youth, so it really befalls the parents to keep an eye on it.

When I wanted to by Remember Me and Borderlands 2, I was stopped by the clerk and asked to show an ID, beause I was under the age of 18. My sister happened to be 18 and bought them for me, but it was the first time I was stoppped.

It’s easy to lie about your age, especially online, but if our children are allowed to do that, the system can’t protect the kid from getting access. Thus, it’s also important to make sure their age is correct on any of their devices (Steam, Xbox, Play Station) because that accuracy WILL protect them.

Popular Games and Their Ratings

As a final note to end on, here are some of the most popular games around and their ratings.

• Grand Theft Auto V: Rated M for Mature
• Minecraft: Rated E10+ for Everyone Ages 10 and Up
• Skyrim: Rated M for Mature
• Fortnite: Rated T for Teen
• Player’s Unknown Battleground: Rated T for Teen
• World of Warcraft: Rated T for Teen
• Red Dead Redemption 2: Rated M for Mature
• Cyberpunk 2077: Rated M for Mature
• Overwatch: T for Teen
• League of Legends: T for Teen
• Super Mario Bros: Rated E for Everyone
• Among Us: Rated E10+ for Everyone Ages 10 and Up
• Undertale: Rated E10+ for Everyone Ages 10 and Up

I highly reccomend that if you want to know about the games you or someone you know is playing, then head over to the ESRB webite here https://www.esrb.org/ where you can search their database and easily access ratings.