UK crime commissioner wants US-style Adults Only game rating

[HEXUS]

For games that go beyond PEGI 18 expectations, with torture and mass murder.

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[Chadders87]

Forgive me for being stupid, but I thought 18+ games were Adult Only already.

[Irien]

Not entirely sure how a parent ignoring a PEGI 18 rating will be deterred by PEGI Adult-Only rating. Do wish folks would stop blaming the industry for bad parenting. AFAIK consoles already have age-locks on them, but I doubt (m)any parents enable them, nor know they exist.

Sadly parental education, followed by supervision of children is the only real "solution", but this all assumes that parents have the time/inclination. Sadly in many cases, kids are just left to "go and play" with little thought/interest as to what.

[rootminus1]

I think the industry has done all that is reasonable to protect children from inappropriate material, what needs to change is parental attitudes; that an 18 rated game is NOT FOR CHILDREN!
Have a spine and don't buy little Timmy the latest COD just because little Johnny at school has it too, it does not mean Timmy is missing out, it means little Johnny has terrible parents

[ALIAKSANDR]

I wonder who else looks this rating?

[zen1966]

Cameron: "Did you mention it's to protect the children?"

Simmonds: "Of course, Prime Minister."

Cameron: "Works every time. What were we controlling again?"

[Brian224]

Like porn blocking by default, this seems to assume (perhaps rightly) that bad parenting is the norm. If so, addressing the problem in the families may be more important than another sticker that will be ignored by the same people that ignore PEGI 18.

[Knoxville]

If this sticks, it will be one of the most ridiculous moves in the rating and censorship of multimedia content sice the "video nasty" VHS era.

Firstly because changing the inch by inch square graphic that denotes the games age rating from an 18 to AO will do next to nothing to change how many copies end up in the hands of minors. Having worked in a large toy retailer a couple of Christmas's ago I can say unequivocally that the number of under tens coming in with a parent in tow to buy the latest Call of Duty far outnumbered the number of people that were unaccompanied and actually of age.

What it actually comes down to is educating parents and changing the perception of video games as a whole. There was a time when you could give your child pretty much free reign to pick out whatever they wanted because nearly all video games were aimed at a young audience and while that hasn't been the case for more than a decade now that perception still hasn't changed a great deal amongst people of certain generations.

Secondly, the AO label essentially creates "X rated" games where there were none before and posits a weird argument at the same time by implying that somehow interactive content of a lower fidelity and level of realism than a motion picture with similar themes/visuals is somehow more prone to cause pyschological harm by virtue of it's interactive nature. Something that in my opinion is ridiculous. The torture sequence in GTA 5 for example is much less visually and pyschologically disturbing than any torture scene filmed for the likes of Hostel or countless other motion pictures over the years yet under this system it would be seen as more harmful simply because you initiate the sequence by pressing the A button.

To my mind the people that would actually benefit the most from this move would not be vulnerable children and young adults but the people who campaign for more censorship within the medium as a whole. After all, wouldn't it be nice if there were more deplorable adult only games out there so the problem looked bigger and scarier... Next thing you know Judas Priest will be getting blamed for teen suicides... Oh wait, that already happened didn't it. Because violent behaviour amongst young people is almost always never actually their fault, or the parents fault or societies fault, not when there's somebody else out there you can sue.

[shaithis]

As far as bad language and violence are concerned, anyone who thinks an 18 rating is protecting children have drank the cool aid that the "video games creates murderers" brigade have been drinking.

Even with today's graphics, children know what's real and what's not. It's the parenting that's the problem, not age ratings on games.

[ZaO]

You guys are so right haha.. Definitely a parenting issue! I just can't add much to what's already been said..

[directhex]

"a parental lock is suggested as a standard feature of video games so parents can monitor and protect their children better" - like every console has features for the last ten ****ing years

[AGTDenton]

Forgive me for being stupid, but I thought 18+ games were Adult Only already.

As daft as alcohol, the law states 18 but all establishments seem to have to sign up to the Challenge 21.

No doubt they will have a Challenge xx in the gaming sector as well soon.

[Roobubba]

No doubt they will have a Challenge xx in the gaming sector as well soon.

By xx, I assume you mean 'replace with appropriate number here', rather than the more prevalent meaning that can be found by googling said characters... That would create quite the challenge!

As others have said, this is absolutely ridiculous duplication of an existing law. By all means use measures to tighten the existing ease with which minors can get access to adult themed games, but creating a whole new category of 'adult' seems to be admitting defeat that the current system doesn't really mean what it's meant to mean... That's just pandering to the poor parenting people have mentioned here.

We pay these politicians, right? You have to wonder what kind of drugs they spend our money on instead of working to make our country a better place.

[TRUTHnTRINITY]

Not entirely sure how a parent ignoring a PEGI 18 rating will be deterred by PEGI Adult-Only rating. Do wish folks would stop blaming the industry for bad parenting. AFAIK consoles already have age-locks on them, but I doubt (m)any parents enable them, nor know they exist.

Sadly parental education, followed by supervision of children is the only real "solution", but this all assumes that parents have the time/inclination. Sadly in many cases, kids are just left to "go and play" with little thought/interest as to what.

Exactly!!!

[Jonatron]

Adam Simmonds, a guy who was voted in by about 6% [1] of the electorate, shouldn't be listened to.
[1] http://www.webcitation.org/6QzhPT82O

[abaxas]

Adult old game = kids want it
You can only buy cigs when 16/18 = kids want to smoke
No porn for under 18s = kids want porn

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