Essau Ramirez

Violence in video games

With the increase popularity that video games are experimenting right now,

violent games are starting to concern parents and are asking for some measures to be

taken by the government. But does violence in video games increase aggressive

behavior? That’s a question that everyone has been trying to answer, with funds being

granted to associations to resolve this incognita, still there has been no real response for

it. Mass media violence has been present for a longer time and still there has been no

correlation that it leads to a violent behavior on humans who see it, there was a study

made to see if violent games actually created a more aggressive behavior on humans, this

study was funded by the government, but failed to give an answer on whether it increased

aggressive behavior or didn’t getting to a conclusion that a violent kid will be attracted to

a violent videogame instead of a violent videogame attracting children, Patrick

Kierkegaard, an English psychologist, tried to explain how videogames may be

decreasing aggressiveness in human beings, giving as an example how violent crimes

decreased from 1,423,677 in 2004 to 1,360,088 in 2005, so isn’t violence supposed to

increase if a huge wave of media violence is given to the people? Said Kierkegaard

(ScienceDaily). So should video games be banned? That is an extreme measure some

parents are asking representatives to impose, but with no data to support it, this cannot be

possible, then real proposals have to come out for this problem to be solved. Video games

should be regulated instead of banned, an organization that rates and review video games

has to be accepted by government, and informing parents of how this works, are the only

ways to keep video games from fomenting violence in the children.

 Regulation of videogames started until 1994, before there was no actual need for

games to be rated, videogames became getting very popular with icons like Mario, Sonic,

pac-man, Donkey Kong, all of them were recognized by most of the people who enjoyed

videogames, a business that started to be sold since 1971 when the first commercial coin

arcade box was released to the public, since then it has created a massive business based

solely in the purpose of selling and entertaining the masses with their stories told, a lot of

videogames have been turned into movies thanks to their history and appeal to the public.

So the ESRB (Electronic Software Rating Board) which is a non-profit, self-regulatory

body established by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) had to be created. The

ESRB is in charge of rating each game published, and the different ratings are:

- EC (early Childhood) titles that have content that may be suitable for ages 3 and

older. Contains no material that parents would find inappropriate.

- E (Everyone) titles that 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.

- E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) titles that 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.

- T (Teen) titles that 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.

- M (Mature) titles that have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and

older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore,
 - AO (Adults Only) titles that 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. (ESRB)

Each of the rating is printed into the front cover of the title so everyone will be able to

see it before buying it, and an explanation of why that rating was given is printed in the

back for reference. Just like movies video games are rated, so why have video games

become more of a controversy than movies? Well children play and buy more video

games than movies, and they are definitely not interested in complex movies or looking

at things they may not understand, so video games are for the young and parents have the

right to know if they are suitable for their children. Several bills have been passed so IDs

have to be presented before buying M rated video games. “Utah Congressman Jim

Matheson and Nebraska Congressman Lee Terry unveiled their bipartisan bill requiring

retailers to check identification in order to keep inappropriate video games from being

sold to children” (Heyrend). This bill requires checking identifications so children will

not be able to buy them and also will require that rating system explanation be posted in

each store so parents will be informed of how the rating works and will be able to make a

good purchasing decision.

Even though the ESRB has been working for a long time now, some politicians don’t

like the way the rating system works, Hillary Clinton has expressed her concern for how

games are rated but then teamed up with the ESRB to create parent awareness of ratings.

After a game rating was changed from Adults Only to Mature due to some changes made

in the title, Senator of California Leland Yee wanted the FTC (Federal Trade
Commission) to investigate how the ESRB has been working and what kind of

arrangement did it make for this rating to be changed. Senator Leland Yee already tried to

pass a bill that would ban selling violent video games to children, but this bill was

blocked because it was found to be unconstitutional. Senator is considered a video game

hater, for everything that he has expressed, but for the rating system to be able to work,

then it has to be accepted, they use a system that is clearly detailed by the ESRB on what

video games publishers need to submit for a review to be made, Senator Lee wanted a

more transparent system declaring that there was clearly a conflict of interest from the

ESRB side. Have we forgotten how movie ratings are done? The method the MPAA

(Motion Picture Association of America) has a secret method for rating their movies too,

so now asking for transparency just for one rating board wouldn’t be fair, every rating

board should do it too so if a bill like this is passed, then it would be just for everyone

and applied with the same criteria.

Parents tend to not know what they are buying for their children, according to a

MediaWise-Harris Interactive Poll, 72% of parents understand little or nothing about

video games, this shows how parents do not get informed of what they are even buying

their children, showing incompetence and carelessness for the education of their children.

These numbers only show how the proposed bill by Utah and Nebraska Congressmen

will educate these parents, the id check is already being implemented in some video game

retailers, personally I got to see how a kid wanted so badly a Mature rated game, and

asked his grandmother to buy it for him, the store clerk then informed the woman of the

rating of the game when she was trying to pay for, the video game didn’t get to be buy.

The example before makes it clear on how this bill needs to be passed and shows how
kids do want to play games they do not have the age to play with. A 2005 FTC report

found that 42% of children aged 13 to 16 unaccompanied by an adult were able to buy a

mature rated game, a very high number of children were able to buy games not suited for

them, that is the focus of this bill, to reduce the number of children successful of buying a

game without an informed adult.

In conclusion, parents were found to be greatly careless for the education of their

children, the bill proposed has been found to be a good idea to inform parents of what

their children will be buying. Senators need to trust the ESRB for the way they handle

ratings so it stays as the rating board for video games, Senator Clinton already changed

her position from not trusting it to promoting this rating system and the fact that media

awareness needed to be made. Some politicians will try to use things that we usually

don’t tend to know about to gain popularity, since most of the parents didn’t understand

video games, then it is easy to convince them of the threat they may be and gain

popularity with them, that is why being informed of what’s happening is the best way to

prevent politicians from using these strategies against us and somehow brainwash us with

their ideas.
 Works Cited

- ESRB. Game Ratings & Descriptor Guide

<http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp>

- Heyrend, Alyson. “Matheson, Terry Bill Helps Shield Kids from Adult-rated Video

Games”. 7 May 2008

<http://www.house.gov/matheson/press2008/pr_080507.shtml >

- “California's Leland Yee Demands Answers on Manhunt 2 Re-rate”. 27 August

2007. < http://www.gamepolitics.com/2007/08/27/breaking-californias-

leland-yee-demands-answers-on-manhunt-2-re-rate >

- Sciencedaily. “Could Violent Video Games Reduce Rather Than Increase

Violence?”. 15 May 2008. <

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080514213432.htm >