Safety First

The entertainment software industry has a regulating system for video games called the Entertainment Rating Software Board (ESRB).  They rate games based on the game's content and suitability taking into account factors such as blood and gore, language, and sexual inuendo.  According to many people, who I will describe in my paper, the ESRB does work because it is meant to rate video games based on all of the factors in the game and allow parents to make the final decision to buy the video game based on the rating assigned. 

Parents are quick to blame the violence in children on video games, but in the end who is buying the video games for the kids?  Parents cannot be nieve, I mean the rating that the ESRB assigns the game is plastered throughout the game's case on both the front and back sides.  Additionally the cashiers at the store usually ask the parents to verify that they know their child is buying a violent video game.  The only way around the system is to buy a violent video game online, but in that circumstance, you would need a credit card, and I doubt some kid, under the age of sixteen has a credit card.

I used to work at Best Buy while in high school.  I worked as a cashier, and one thing that I was told over and over was to always check with the parent to make sure they approve of the video game their child is buying.  I was always good at it, because I understood how serious our company took the policy.  One day an undercover employee from Best Buy corporate came into our store with their child.  I was not working that day, but according to my boss, the undercover employee proceeded to have their child, who was about 13 years old walk up to one of the cashiers carrying four video games, all of them rated for his age, except one which was rated for "mature players ages seventeen and up" and would require verification from the parent.  The cashier had thought that because the parent was standing right next to the child, they were approving of the game, so the cashier did not ask if they approved.  In the end, our manager was confronted with the problem and the cashier recieved a very nice talking to.  What I am trying to show here is how strict the retail industry takes on the ratings of video games, and the ways which we make sure violent video games do not slip into the wrong hands.  This shows that parents have to understand the rating of a video game and what their kid is playing.  So why do parents blame violence in children on the violent video games when in reality they are the ones putting the video game in the child's hand, fully knowing what the game's content includes.