14 DAY TRIAL // The world isn't by far a safe place. Especially for the children who now have access to everything that's bad for them via Internet, TV and video games. Now, rating bards such as the BBFC, the ESRB and PEGI are making enormous efforts in keeping bad material away from those of inappropriate age. Thus, the PEGI rating system, which currently evaluates all games released in the UK and the rest of Europe, is now to be expanded to include games playable online via consoles, PCs and mobiles.
As the official report informs, the new ratings system was rolled out at the Expert Conference 2007 in Brussels by ISFE, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe, the European industry body for games publishers, for which ELSPA was a founding member. Europe's Commissioner for Education and Culture, Viviane Reding, told the conference she was in no doubt about the value of PEGI Online.
"The protection of children as users of online technologies is of great importance for the Commission," she said. "The Internet has added a whole new dimension to the various forms of media consumption. This includes video games [which] increasingly constitute one of the favourite leisure activities of Europeans of all ages and social categories.
In that context, I believe that Europe needs a strong interactive games industry. Indeed, interactive games now sell more, in terms of value, than films in Europe's cinemas. The total value of online exploitation of video games through fixed and mobile platforms in Europe was ?699m (?472m) in 2005.
The system is aimed at ensuring input not only by industry but also by all other stakeholders - including regulators, child welfare NGOs and child psychology experts - who were consulted in the design of the system and are represented in the structure set up to run PEGI and PEGI Online.
This is a good example of an industry initiative developed in co-operation with other stakeholders which allows a rapid and flexible solution to the problems of new technologies and greater safety for our children."
Opinions will be divided, I'm sure. Some people, like Jack Thompson, for example, praise the rating boards for their efforts, while others curse them for not allowing games such as Manhunt 2 on the market. The thing is no one is perfectly right when it comes to controversial content, so the best thing we can hope for is for developers and rating boards to find common grounds.