PEGI Ratings Become Standard in the United Kingdom

The Department of Culture, Media and Sports of the United Kingdom government has decided that the country would use the Pan European Game Industry ratings system in order to label videogames. The decision comes after the Department took a close look at the Gordon Brown commissioned Byron report, which dealt with a wide variety of issues related to videogames.

The British Board of Film Classification has been saying that it plans to become the sole regulatory body dealing with films and with videogames, with their main argument being that a unified system would make it easier for parents to choose when it comes to the media that their children are consuming. The ambitions of the BBDC are the main ones limited by the decision coming from the Government.

The PEGI standard is being pushed by The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, which has long argued that the film ratings are not well suited for videogames and that the legislation and ratings system in the United Kingdom should be connected to those used in the rest of Europe.

Mike Rawlinson, who is a general director of ELSPA, stated that “The Government has made absolutely the right decision for child safety. By choosing PEGI as the single classification system in the UK, British children will now get the best possible protection when playing video games either on a console or on the internet. Parents can be assured that they will have access to clear, uniform ratings on games and an accurate understanding of game content.”

It seems that the Video Standards Council will be the organization tasked with enforcing the PEGI standards. This means that the entity will both be issuing rating and will have the power to ban certain videogames from selling in the United Kingdom. Let's hope that it manages to perform the tasks well and that there are less baseless bans than before.