By now you have
probably heard about the "Hot Coffee" scandal.
If not, here's the short version. In early July we discovered
that explicit pornography was included in the top selling
video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. We issued
a MediaWise parent alert, which started the firestorm that
followed. It took two weeks for Rockstar Games to stop the
string of denials and finally come clean. The results include
lawsuits, a federal investigation, and major retailers cleaning
the games off their shelves and sending them back to Rockstar.
If you have been reading this column over the years you
know that I am a fan of good video games. The problem is
that there are some companies that consider things like
killing police officers and hacking women to death with
chainsaws as entertainment. One of the tools that parents
need to distinguish the treasures from the trash is a rating
system they can understand and trust. The "hot coffee"
scandal has shown once and for all that the present rating
system is broken and can't be fixed.
The ESRB video game rating system, like its cousins in the
movie and television industries, is owned and operated by
the industry it is supposed to monitor. Talk about the fox
guarding the chicken coop. That's why only eighteen games
out of ten thousand have ever been rated Adults Only (AO).
That's why study after study shows that all media ratings
would be stricter if parents were doing the job. It took
explicit porn to get Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
an AO rating even though the original version rewarded players
whose onscreen persona had sex with prostitutes and then
killed them.
MediaWise parents need reliable information to make good
media choices for their kids. Ratings are one source. That's
why it's time to reform the rating systems in two ways.
First the ratings should be assigned by an independent board
that doesn't have financial conflicts of interest. Second,
we should end the confusing alphabet soup that we have now
and have one clear system for movies, TV, and video games.
In the next few years all the lines separating the different
forms of media will melt away. A child sitting on a couch
will be able to switch from a TV program, to a video game,
to video on demand with a simple click of a remote. One
easy to understand rating system that we can trust will
help steer our children toward a healthier MediaWise future.
David Walsh, Ph.D. is the founder of the
MediaWise Movement, a program of the National Institute
on Media and the Family (www.mediafamily.org).
His latest book, Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide
to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen, is a national
best seller.
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