Entertainment Software Rating Board Research Articles

Beneath the label: unsatisfactory compliance with ESRB, PEGI and IARC industry self-regulation requiring loot box presence warning labels by video game companies.

Loot boxes in video games are a form of in-game transactions with randomized elements. Concerns have been raised about loot boxes' similarities with gambling and their potential harms (e.g. overspending). Recognizing players' and parents' concerns, in mid-2020, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) announced that games containing loot boxes or any forms of in-game transactions with randomized elements will be marked by a new label stating 'In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)'. The same label has also been adopted by the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) and thereby assigned to games available on digital storefronts, e.g. the Google Play Store. The label is intended to provide more information to consumers and allow them to make more informed purchasing decisions. This measure is not legally binding and has been adopted as industry self-regulation or corporate social responsibility. Previous research has suggested that industry self-regulation might not be effectively complied with due to conflicting commercial interests. Compliance with the ESRB's, PEGI's and IARC's loot box presence warning label was assessed in two studies. The first study found that 60.6% of all games labelled by either the ESRB or PEGI (or 16.1% using a more equitable methodology) were not labelled by the other. The majority of the inconsistencies were caused by the ESRB refusing to apply the measure retroactively. Five instances where one age rating organization culpably failed to accurately identify loot box presence were identified (although only two cases were admitted by the relevant organization). Generally, with newly released games, consumers can rely on the PEGI and ESRB labels. PEGI has retroactively labelled many older games, meaning that consumers can expect the labelling to be accurate. However, due to the ESRB's policies (which it has refused to improve), North American consumers cannot rely on the label for many older games containing loot boxes, unlike their European counterparts. The data suggest that the loot box issue is far more pressing on mobile platforms than console/PC platforms. The second study found that 71.0% of popular games containing loot boxes on the Google Play Store (whose age rating system is regulated through IARC) did not display the label and were therefore non-compliant. The IARC's current policy on the Google Play Store is that only games submitted for rating after February 2022 are required to be labelled. This policy (which the IARC has refused to improve) means that most popular and high-grossing games can be, and presently are, marketed without the label, thus significantly reducing the measure's scope and potential benefit. The Apple App Store still does not allow loot box presence to be disclosed. At present, consumers and parents cannot rely on this self-regulatory measure to provide accurate information as to loot box presence for mobile games. Due to their immense scale, the mobile markets pose regulatory and enforcement challenges that PEGI admits are not yet resolved. The mere existence of this measure cannot be used to justify the non-regulation of loot boxes by governments, given the poor compliance and doubtful efficacy (even if when complied with satisfactorily). Improvements to the existing age rating systems are proposed. Preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/E6QBM (date of in-principle acceptance: 12 January 2023).

Beyond the age ratings: Exploring the educational and empathetic benefits of this war of mine for adolescents

Rating systems have been ranking digital games based on potentially dangerous content for almost 30 years. What they have successfully avoided so far, however, is assessing potentially beneficial elements. Nevertheless, digital games can have a positive impact on children’s development in a number of areas, including emotional, intellectual, moral and social. This study focuses on the digital game This War of Mine, which was inspired by events during the 1992 – 1996 siege of Sarajevo and the story itself was inspired by the poor living conditions of civilians. According to the rating institution Pan European Game Information, the title is unsuitable for gamers under the age of 18 and company Entertainment Software Rating Board states, that the game is inappropriate for players under the age of 17. In this study, we focus on assessing the potential benefits of the digital game for younger individuals. We assume that playing it properly can help teens better understand the issues faced by millions of people around the world, in the context of the ongoing war conflicts and migration crisis.

Investigation of Social Approaches in Different Countries towards Suicide of the Blue Whale Game through Newspaper News

The aim of this study is to examine the negative attitude and prejudice of the media reflected in news articles about the relationship between ‘online games and suicidal youth’. This study analyzed the content of the news and the language of the media used for young people who committed suicide related to playing Blue Whale Challenge in different social settings. In this study, news articles in three different countries were examined with the content analysis method, using the content descriptors of Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). In the news concerning young people who committed suicide and used this game, it was clearly observed that sources of influence involved attitudes towards online games, developed in part through the messages of the media, and that social conditions, including generational experiences, were influential in creating the media messages. Keywords: media panic, violence, online games, Blue Whale Challenge

Video game genre ((Online)Games)

Video game genre ((Online)Games)

Game Over, Loot Boxes: Insert Self-Regulation to Continue 10..9..8..7..

Video games incite controversy. Gaming has been blamed for school shootings, included in the International Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization (WHO), and banned in some countries as gambling. For each accusation video game developers, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) have fought back. Based on the increasing number of gamers and the soaring revenues, the video game industry appears to be winning. Especially now with millions of people quarantining in their homes because of COVID 19, video game profits are beating holiday sales records. Even the WHO and other former video game critics are encouraging people to play video games as a safe way to #PlayApartTogether. However, there is one aspect of gaming, where the video game industry is losing steam; loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions. As the threat of heavy-handed legislation looms, the video game industry has continued to back down and offer platitudes to appease legislators, parents, and gamers. This note will address three recognized concerns related to loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions. It will then analyze whether the Anti-Loot Box Bill proposed by three U.S. Senators, effectively resolves those concerns. As an alternative this note proposes a self-regulatory solution which would require the ESRB to include a substantial and informative in-game purchase rating to its existing content rating label. Implementing my proposed solution will give gamers and parents the information they really need, legislators a feeling of accomplishment, and the gaming industry another chance to do better for gamers.

Parents’ and children’s violent gameplay: role of co-playing

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the role of co-playing as a moderator of the relation between parents’ and children’s play of violent video games.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses dyadic parent/child survey data to estimate the conditional effects in the model, both direct and indirect.FindingsThe positive effect of parents’ violent video game play of children’s playing behaviors is attenuated by parent/child co-playing. Parents’ knowledge of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings leads to higher levels of co-playing, thereby indirectly attenuating violent video game play in children as driven by parents’ play.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper extends the literature on consumer socialization and the impact of co-playing and identifies an antecedent for co-playing in this context.Practical implicationsThe paper reveals that knowledge of the self-regulatory ESRB rules plays a valuable (indirect) role in mitigating violent video game play by children through an increase in co-playing, which attenuates the positive effect of parents’ play on children’s play.Originality/valueThe study incorporates data from both parents and children to investigate the relationship between parents and children’s violent video game play while empirically investigating the uncertainty in the literature concerning the moderating impact of co-playing.

Video games sale control

In this document it can be seen the methodology and the project’s principal functioning; it will be taken as main support the ESRB classification, who is the Entertainment Software Rating Board, this as the theoretical part. In software it was used MATLAB as principal tool, together to a TOOLBOX of MathWorks geometry recognition; thanks to this it was possible control the sale to underage people and even adults (because something videogames have restrictions for people under 21 years old), this control only works with the creator of this project there was a time limitation, but it is expected to be able to expand the ages recognition. Despite of article’s title “Video Games sale control” this one can be do a control more exhaustive of the products sale with age limitation.

Sexual content in video games: an analysis of the Entertainment Software Rating Board classification from 1994 to 2013.

Data was obtained about sexual content and rating for 23722 video games from 1994 to 2013 from the Entertainment Software Rating Board database; release dates and information on the top 100 selling video games was also obtained. A yearly prevalence of sexual content according to rating categories was calculated. Trends and comparisons were estimated using Joinpoint regression. Sexual content was present in 13% of the video games. Games rated 'Mature' had the highest prevalence of sexual content (34.5%) followed by 'Teen' (30.7%) and 'E10+' (21.3%). Over time, sexual content decreased in the 'Everyone' category, 'E10+' maintained a low prevalence and 'Teen' and 'Mature' showed a marked increase. Both top and non-top video games showed constant increases, with top selling video games having 10.1% more sexual content across the period of study. Over the last 20 years, the prevalence of sexual content has increased in video games with a 'Teen' or 'Mature' rating. Further studies are needed to quantify the potential association between sexual content in video games and sexual behaviour in children and adolescents.

Tobacco Content in Video Games: Categorization of Tobacco Imagery and Gamer Recall.

Tobacco content has been identified in popular video games played by adolescents. To date, there are no established instruments for categorizing tobacco content. We describe development and demonstrate the use of an instrument to categorize types of tobacco content. Interviews were conducted with 61 participants: 20 adolescents (mean age 17.7), and 41 adults (mean age 23.9), who discussed favorite games and recalled tobacco content. All games mentioned were examined for tobacco content by watching movies of game play on YouTube, examining individual game Wiki sites, and reviewing content descriptors provided by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), Common Sense Media, and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). A typology of tobacco content was created and correlated with gamer recall of tobacco content. Participants together mentioned 366 games, of which 152 were unique. Tobacco content was verified in 39.5% (60/152) of games. Six categories of content were identified, including "no tobacco content." Of games containing tobacco, 88% (53/60) contained at least two categories of content. Games with more categories were associated with greater gamer recall of tobacco content. Tobacco content is present in video games and consciously recalled by players, with higher accuracy of recall associated with games featuring multiple types of tobacco content and more engaging, player-active content. Playing video games is now a daily part of most adolescents' lives. Tobacco content is present in many popular games. Currently there are no published instruments to assist in categorizing tobacco content in video games. This study describes a systematic approach to categorize tobacco content in video games and demonstrates that games featuring more categories of tobacco content are associated with more accurate gamer recall of the presence of tobacco content when compared with games with fewer categories of content. Understanding the extent of such content will be essential in formulating tobacco control strategies to address tobacco content in games.

Parental Restrictive Mediation and Children's Violent Video Game Play: The Effectiveness of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Rating System

This study seeks to determine whether Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings are an effective tool for parents seeking to enhance their mediation efforts and ultimately reduce their children's play of violent video games (and their children's corresponding engagement in negative behaviors, such as getting in fights at school). Results demonstrate that children of parents who employ restrictive mediation efforts tend to play less violent video games, and the effect of these efforts is enhanced when parents use the ESRB system. This moderated effect also extends to reduce children's engagement in negative behaviors in school. These findings suggest that both the video game industry and the government could play a role in establishing and maintaining educational programs whose purpose is to inform parents/caretakers about the potential usefulness of the ESRB guidelines.

Aggression among Collage and School Students Who Play Violent Video Games

Present study aimed to investigate that playing violent video games in process with time duration levels may produce differences in level of aggression in boys. Itwas hypothesized that 1) there will likely to besignificant differences inthe level of aggressionon the basis of the intensity of violencein videogames, and 2) there will likely to besignificant differences inthe level of aggressionon the basis of duration of playingviolent video games)separately, and 3) there will likely to be significant interactive relationshipbetween intensity of violence and duration of playing video gamesonaggression scores of college students. Between groups research design was used for this purpose. Sample consisted of100 male students (Age: 15-20years)obtained through non probability purposive sampling technique from private collegesLahore.The Aggression Questionnaire by Buss and Perry (1992) was used for assessment of aggression.The Entertainment Software Rating Board ESRB(2013) was used to devide intensity of violence in video games.Two-Way ANOVA concluded no significant differences in any hypotheses. Which can be concluded as the playing video violent games does not associate with presence of aggression. This research has implications in the field of social psychology, behavioural psychology and in the field of gaming and surfing.

Beyond Today’s Video Game Rating Systems

The current classification systems for video games are first attempts at protecting children from the real or imaginary influence of potentially harmful contents. These systems, however, are based on questionable principles, for two reasons. First, analyzing the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) from a pedagogical point of view, one cannot but notice that they are inherently flawed by contradictions and confusion of different perspectives. Second, these contradictions increase the difficulty for parents who buy video games to understand the rating. This is a considerable drawback, as parents and child caregivers should be the primary targets of such rating systems. This article offers a critical examination of the European PEGI and the North American ESRB rating systems, and, starting from this analysis, suggests improvements that could make video game rating systems more appropriate in terms of their function as parental guidance.

Depictions of Injuries and Safety Gear Usage in the World’s Most Popular Video Games

Throughout the world, nearly 4 million children die annually as a result of an unintentional injury. From the perspectives of cultivation theory and social learning theory, children’s risk for injury may be influenced by a variety of sources, including media. Previous research suggests that many media sources, including television programs and popular movies, display risky behaviors and a general disregard for safety. The present study added to this literature by quantifying the extent to which a popular form of media, video games, displays injury events and appropriate utilization of safety gear. Research assistants coded trailers of the world’s most popular video games across 13 different genres. Acceptable reliability estimates across assistants were obtained, and results revealed that many video games do not portray safety restraint devices, helmets, or other safety gear. Less than 3% of games show primary characters wearing safety restraint devices while they are driving a vehicle, and helmets are rarely displayed when characters ride bicycles or skateboards. Significant differences in the portrayal of injury events and safety gear usage emerged across Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings. Implications for the video game industry are discussed.

Gaming World Politics: Meaning of Play and World Structure

Critical IR theory engages with popular representations of global politics, particularly films, photography, and literature (Amoore 2007; Bleiker 2001; Danchev and Lisle 2009; Shapiro 2009). Gaming plays an increasingly large role in popular culture: the launch of video games, such as Halo, Call of Duty, or Gears of War, garner as much money and attention as blockbuster films. The Entertainment Software Rating Board presents the following picture of the industry: 67% of US households play video games—40% of whom are women, with sales in $10.5B in 2009 (ESRB 2011). Global sales of $40B make it equal to other entertainment industries, such as music ($30-40B) or movies ($27B). Consequently, we must take gaming to be as much a part of the imbrication of global politics into the everyday as movies, music, or literature. The taken-for-grantedness, the unremarkability of games that use tropes and figures of global politics functions to render unproblematic the common sense of international relations. Just because these games take place in the basement, the living room, or in the rec halls of Forward Operating Bases, and not the UN Security Council chambers, does not make them any less a vital part of the construction of IR. When IR theorists invoke the “rules of the game” or game theory as a frame for systematically separating agents from structures, and the conditions of possibility for politics, they are limiting the bounds of play—ascribing a set of primarily social conventions (rules) to an abstract structure of world politics (the game). Play and these ludological tropes are as vital to our political imagination as a self-styled “serious” reading of politics. We must look at gamic representations of the world and international relations—not as decision-making tools but as artifacts of popular culture (Grayson, …

M-Rated Video Games and Aggressive or Problem Behavior Among Young Adolescents

This research examined the potential relationship between adolescent problem behaviors and amount of time spent with violent electronic games. Survey data were collected from 1,254 7th and 8th grade students in two states. A “dose” of exposure to Mature-rated games was calculated using Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings of titles children reported playing “a lot in the past six months,” and average days per week of video game play. Analyses were conducted using simultaneous logistic regression for binary outcome variables, and simultaneous multiple linear regression for continuous outcome variables, controlling for a series of potential confounders. M-rated game dose predicted greater risk for bullying (p < .01) and physical fights (p < .001), but not for delinquent behaviors or being a victim of bullies. When analyzed separately, these associations became weaker for boys and stronger for girls.

Content and ratings of teen-rated video games.

Children's exposure to violence, blood, sexual themes, profanity, substances, and gambling in the media remains a source of public health concern. However, content in video games played by older children and adolescents has not been quantified or compared with the rating information provided to consumers by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). To quantify and characterize the content in video games rated T (for "Teen") and to measure the agreement between the content observed in game play and the ESRB-assigned content descriptors displayed on the game box. We created a database of all 396 T-rated video game titles released on the major video game consoles in the United States by April 1, 2001, to identify the distribution of games by genre and to characterize the distribution of ESRB-assigned content descriptors. We randomly sampled 80 video game titles (which included 81 games because 1 title included 2 separate games), played each game for at least 1 hour, quantitatively assessed the content, and compared the content we observed with the content descriptors assigned by the ESRB. Depictions of violence, blood, sexual themes, gambling, and alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs; whether injuring or killing characters is rewarded or is required to advance in the game; characterization of gender associated with sexual themes; and use of profanity in dialogue, lyrics, or gestures. Analysis of all content descriptors assigned to the 396 T-rated video game titles showed 373 (94%) received content descriptors for violence, 102 (26%) for blood, 60 (15%) for sexual themes, 57 (14%) for profanity, 26 (7%) for comic mischief, 6 (2%) for substances, and none for gambling. In the random sample of 81 games we played, we found that 79 (98%) involved intentional violence for an average of 36% of game play, 73 (90%) rewarded or required the player to injure characters, 56 (69%) rewarded or required the player to kill, 34 (42%) depicted blood, 22 (27%) depicted sexual themes, 22 (27%) contained profanity, 12 (15%) depicted substances, and 1 (1%) involved gambling. Our observations of 81 games match the ESRB content descriptors for violence in 77 games (95%), for blood in 22 (27%), for sexual themes in 16 (20%), for profanity in 14 (17%), and for substances in 1 (1%). Games were significantly more likely to depict females partially nude or engaged in sexual behaviors than males. Overall, we identified 51 observations of content that could warrant a content descriptor in 39 games (48%) in which the ESRB had not assigned a content descriptor. We found that the ESRB assigned 7 content descriptors for 7 games (9%) in which we did not observe the content indicated within 1 hour of game play. Content analysis suggests a significant amount of content in T-rated video games that might surprise adolescent players and their parents given the presence of this content in games without ESRB content descriptors. Physicians and parents should be aware that popular T-rated video games may be a source of exposure to a wide range of unexpected content.