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Fri Dec 4
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| posts about #entertainmentsoftwareratingboard more → |
An Open Letter From the ESRB to Utah's Parents and Leaders |
Iran Joining The ESRB |
Clinton and Lieberman Praise ESRB's New Rating Summaries |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Kotaku 
03/06/09
Also only those who SAY they're against crime should get in trouble for it. After all, it's one thing to be a criminal, but hypocrites are the WORST.
03/06/09
I'm glad to see the president is taking a stand against these foolish game laws. Yes, I think kids shouldn't get ahold of M-rated games and R-rated movies (unless their parents approve of it), but this shouldn't be a government issue, it should be a social issue.
Simply put, ALL parents need to be responsible for their children's upbringing. Use the tools they have at their hands, and not pass the blame when things go awry.
03/06/09
03/06/09
Gamestop has a policy to not sell mature games to an underage audience. If a cashier forgets to card a customer when buying an M game, and that customer is underage, then Gamestop (or that cashier) is liable and can be fined, because they broke their policy.
Now, let's pretend EB Games is different than Gamestop. They have decided to not have a policy regarding selling M games. They sell an M game to an underaged customer, and....nothing happens. Because they have no policy, they've done nothing wrong in the eyes of this law.
So, if a store has a policy, and someone violates that policy, they get in trouble. If that same store decides to not have a policy, they can sell to whoever they want (minors buying M games) without consequence.
03/06/09
03/06/09
03/06/09
K-A became E. Surprised to see a "modernized" version of the icon, though.
03/06/09
03/06/09
It's ridiculous because ESRB ratings for games aren't mandatory right now.
What retailers will do, is start selling games WITHOUT ESRB ratings on them, in order to avoid the fines associated with selling an M-Rated game to a minor.
03/06/09
Nah, they don't even need to do that. They can still sell ESRB rated games, as long as they don't have any sort of official policy requiring adherence to the ratings.
So yeah, it's a seriously fubar piece of legislation. But then again, what would you expect from something good ol' Jack had a hand in?
03/06/09
03/06/09
03/06/09
03/06/09
03/06/09
@Ryan Van Riper: 'Cuz they don't have fast enough internet and actually buy pr0n? I kidd I kidd.
03/06/09
03/06/09
...which probably means they have no idea what they should do when it comes to the topic of games and their kids.
For the commenters who have kids and are gamers themselves;
-'Thank you for being responsible.'
=D
03/06/09
03/06/09
03/06/09
about 1968
03/06/09
There's a whole lot more 'bad' parents out there than 'good' parents.
03/06/09
Sadly, that's probably accurate.
03/06/09
03/06/09
I see a lot of people saying "Parents should be parenting"... But kids will be kids. No matter the level of "training" they will always look at getting away with something they aren't supposed to. If you get the retailer to help the situation, then you don't have to put your child on "lock down" because he might walk to Target, buy an M-Rated game, and play it when no one is watching. Maybe they're right though... maybe we should start letting them go to R-Rater movies without parental consent... hell let them drink and smoke too, why the fuck not? I guess if your kid gets hit by some other kid who was drunk driving, you just weren't being a good parent.
03/06/09
03/06/09
We did it without being told, and we did it better.
12/24/08
Iran: Right on, Fox News! We're on your side!
Fox News: Err, wait. What?
Iran: Oh. It's you.
Awkward pause.
Fox News: Pretend this never happened?
Iran: Agreed.
12/24/08
Membership in the ERC is largely left to retailers, both in the US and Canada where the ESRB ratings are enforced : [www.esrb.org]
Also, most countries have their own ratings boards, such as the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification, which keeps getting mentioned on Kotaku due to their utter cluelessness : [kotaku.com]
Then there's the fact that the ESRB is a non-profit organization. There's nothing for Iran, a country, to join in on.
Now, it is possible that Iran, as a country, COULD be shacking up with the ESA, who backs the ESRB and ERC. However, ESA membership is largely restricted to Video game companies, and the ESA is widely considered a trade-body : [www.theesa.com] : Unless Iran is getting into games development directly, there's really nothing for them to join in the ESA either.
Basically, while I think it's possible that Iran could be starting up it's own ratings body for video games, I just don't see Iran, as a country, getting along with a US and Canadian non-profit group.
12/24/08
I think it's possible that they could be working with the esrb to develop a similar rating system. There's nothing that prevents the esrb from working with another country's rating system.
12/24/08
"The Tehran Times is reporting that Iran has joined the Entertainment Software Rating Board. That's right. Iran. "
12/24/08
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12/24/08
That's not the mature logo. That's the thingy in the middle of the Iranian flag.
12/24/08
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Bombs and children are extremely incompatible. I'll give it an M rating.
IRANIAN REPRESENTATIVE: E! E! E for Everyone!
12/24/08
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12/24/08
G.I. Joe is not a documentary.
12/24/08
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