Everywhere you go you see content ratings — movies, TV shows, and computer games. There's different rating systems for all, but they all pretty much mean the same. And now a new system enters the ring. In the first week of October, comedian Bill Cosby will be in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area promoting a new system called KidScore. It was developed by the National Institute on Media and the Family, and is supposed to be an all-in-one ratings system for a variety of entertainment outlets. Content is rated by "violence; fear; harmful or illegal behaviors such as glamorized tobacco, alcohol, and drug use; nudity; sex; language; and age-appropriateness."
KidScore is only one of the content rating systems currently available. These systems have become more strict in their ratings since the last couple of years, when legislative and parents complained about the content in many of today's games. Games with excessive violence, nudity, sex . . . do receive mature ratings, and it's from these systems that they receive those ratings, notifying parents and people offended by such content to stay away from these games.
The fine people that do this job should be recognized for their help in determining what's appropriate and what's not. Two companies/organizations truly deserve this recognition. The first, ESRB only rates interactive entertainment software products. Their ratings are what you see on the front of most video/computer games. The ratings are only to give the consumer information, not telling them what to buy. ESRB recommends using your own taste and senses. Also included in their ratings are descriptors, telling the buyer anything content wise that may be offending. "Each product is rated by three individually, trained raters. The raters represent a wide range of backgrounds, races, and ages and have no ties to the interactive entertainment industry. Raters include retired school principals, parents, professionals, and other individuals from all walks of life," (Taken from ESRB's web site). These three raters guarantee that different types of games are not discriminated against, or favored, giving the consumer a fair rating.
The second company, RSAC, rates not only games, but also on-line content. I'm sure you've seen those "We've rated with RSAC" buttons somewhere on the Internet. RSAC was created to administer a system that would guarantee the fair ratings of games based on content. It met with the standards of senators opposed to the content in some games. Even though this system is voluntary, many retailers will only sell rated games, making it almost required for publishers of games to have their games rated. When this system was finally met with success, it eventually branched out to the Internet, where it rates content for personal sites to large businesses.
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