Age Ratings and Bannings

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) are the ratings system for Films and Video in the UK. The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body, which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos since the passing of the Video Recordings Act in 1984.

BBFC also do digital games but on June 16, 2009, it was declared by the UK's Department of Culture, Media and Sport that PEGI would be the sole classification system for videogames and software in the UK.

PEGI and BBFC have different age ratings for games.


You can notice the difference between the ratings straight away. PEGI has gone for a 16 rating and chosen to use the ages 3 and 7 instead of U and PG. The 12a and R18 Rating aren’t used when rating games by the BBFC.

There has been lots of controversy about games being banned and some games ratings. For example, Manhunt was released on November 18, 2003 but was taken off shelves in certain stores, GAME being the major one. This was all down to someone murdering another person and then blaming it on the game.
This game does have gruesome scenes of violence and murder but blaming video games is just a scape goat people try and use. I would also think that children who do try and murder someone after playing a game must have had mental instabilities, or some mental health issues. It was never banned in the UK or in North America but in other countries such as New Zealand and Australia, it was banned.


Why is the rating system there?

Age ratings are used to ensure that content in, films, videos, DVDs and Video Games, are not purchased by the wrong audience. Age Ratings are more aimed at parents to provide guidance on whether to buy that product or not.

Video games are played by millions of people and in the last 10 years have seen a massive increase of users. Just recently, one of the most popular games, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 hit over 25 million active players over all platforms. That is a massive number considering only 37% of the UK Population call themselves “active gamers”. 49% of games are 3+ or U, that is a massive amount and only 4% are for only 18+. This shows even with the small amount of games that are 18+ we still need a rating system.

The rating system shows who the game is suitable for. For example, PEGI 7 games are only suitable for people ages 7 and above. Where as a PEGI 18 game is only suitable for people ages 18 and above. Unfortunately, some parents don’t look at the ratings or simply don’t care, they will buy the child the game regardless of the warnings and age rating. Parents try and blame the Games Industry far too fast nowadays and this angers a lot of people. It is the parent’s responsibility to choose what their child plays not the game industry or PEGI.

Recently, on the Alan Titchmarsh Show, there was a discussion about video games and the violence involved in some games. There were 3 guests involved in the discussion. CVG Editor Tim Ingham, Actress Julie Peasgood and Former Editor of the Sun Kelvin McKenzie. For some reason, Julie seemed to think games “promote racism” and "cause low self-esteem and depression". I think these a both bold statements, especially the racism one. I have never played a game which has had anything which promotes racism. They seemed to try and talk down CVG Editor Tim Ingham even though he was putting forward a strong argument. This shows how ill informed some people can be about the games industry and rating system. Alan said that games are easy to get hold even with the system and cinemas have the rating system which stops kids getting in. One thing wrong there though is, what’s to stop these kids buying the DVD of the film when it becomes available?

Legal Issues

Since PEGI is a voluntary system it runs in conjunction with, and is subordinate to, existing national laws, whether they prohibit certain content or establish mandatory rating systems. The Legal Committee’s role is to advise ISFE of any changes to national legislation within participating countries that could have an impact on the voluntary age rating system.
The PEGI System is based on a Code of Conduct - a set of rules to which every publisher using the PEGI system is contractually committed. The Code deals with the age labelling, promotion and advertising of interactive products and reflects the interactive software industry’s commitment to provide information to the public in a responsible manner. In order to fulfil these objectives a number of boards and committees have been created.

Ethical Issues

Do you think it is ok that games with massive violence can get to children? I do not like it one bit. It's all down to parents once again, they supply the games to their children and therefore they have access to massive amounts of violence in one piece of Media. Some parents would argue, that they can do what they please and that they know their children. This in a sense is true but once again, if we all followed this stance we wouldn't need the rating system. Kids have killed and then blamed video games and then the parents have blamed the industry. No, bad parents. It's your fault.

As in life, there are ethical issues in games as well. One of the big ones being the Fable Series. One of the games tag line for a while was, “Good or Evil?”
This plays a big part in the game and you have to make decisions in game as you would in real life. For example, shooting a man or letting him live? This is not a situation we face in real life everyday. We would normally have a situation like, Helping an old lady across the road or leaving her and crossing anyway. Studies have been carried out with games like this to see if affects people and if they act the same in game as they do in real life.

A big issue which a lot of people were talking about when it first surfaced was the No Russian level from the game Modern Warfare 2. This level had you exiting from an elevator in an airport with 4 other people and opening fire on innocent civilians. This is the reason Modern Warfare 2 got it’s 18 Rating, the first time in the history of Call of Duty to receive an 18 rating. Lots of people complained about this level but Infinity Ward, the games developer, did include a “SKIP LEVEL” option. They did this knowing that not everyone would want to play this level and that it might traumatise certain people. They made sure it wouldn’t affect the games ending or rewards that the player would receive.

Conclusion

Ratings on games and films are there for a reason, to protect the consumer. There is not much the game/film industry can do if the parents choose to go against the ratings and give their children adult games/films. The industries will always be blamed, the games one especially. They receive lots of complaints everyday and the news seems to report on it and make it look like it’s their fault when it’s not. They get the rating on their and then ship the game out. If it’s for adults then fine, if it’s for children fine. Don’t blame the games industry. Banning games over here is very rare; I don’t think there has been one for many years now. Way I see it, the parents will continue to buy their children whatever games they want until there is a better system introduced to stop people under 18 getting their hands on these adult games. I don’t have any ideas what could possibly help this problem, new rating system wouldn’t help and parental locks on the games consoles themselves already exist but blantly aren’t used. I just hope that the games industry doesn’t receive a knocking blow in the years to come due to his problem.