Study: Teen-rated games feature mature content

[EWS]

This really only affects the US people here.  But when reading it I was quite surprised!

Medical journal article finds unlisted profanity, sex, and violence prevalent in T-rated games.

Besides containing articles on predictors of new-onset kidney disease and antibiotic use in relation to the risk of breast cancer, this month's Journal of the American Medical Association touched on a surprising subject--games.

In their article "Content and Ratings of Teen-Rated Video Games," researchers Kevin Haninger and Dr. Kimberly M. Thompson surveyed 396 commonly available video games rated "T" by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Of those, 94 percent carried warning labels for violence, 15 percent for sexual themes and/or content, 14 percent for profanity, and 2 percent for tobacco, alcohol, and/or other intoxicating agents.

When Haninger and Thompson played a random sample of 81 games from the group, they found different results: 98 percent of games contained violence (42 percent featuring blood), 27 percent had sexual themes, 27 percent had profanity, and 15 percent had "use of substances."

However, of those games observed, only 73 percent of games with sexual themes, 64 percent of games with profanity, and 8 percent of games with substance use had front-cover descriptors of their potentially offensive content.

While she conceded the ESRB system "worked," Thompson told the Associated Press it "is not providing complete information to parents... In many games there's content we think parents would care about." As founder of Harvard University's Kids Risk Project, Thompson has made it her career to alert the public to dangers to children's health. (Haninger is a doctoral student at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university.) The study's results and methodology can be seen on the Kids Risk Web site.

For its part, ESRB spokesman Matthew Kagan told Reuters that more independent research has yielded different results. He cited an October 2003 study conducted in which 400 American parents watched footage from 80 games. Of those parents surveyed, over 75 percent agreed with the game's ESRB rating.

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot  [postED: 02/18/04 06:40 PM]

What do you all think?

[Procyon]

lol  I have seen Starcraft boxes with a "M" of Mature instead of a "T" (I think that SC should be "K" of kids or something like that).

[DukeLeto]

You've got to be kidding me?  ESRB too lenient? ROTFLMAO!  That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard!

[exatreide]

if parents are stupid enough to buy there 8 year old "the goriest killing game 18 shoot all the aliens in huge explosions" or whatever the deserve whatever they get, trying to blame games insted of ignornent stupid non caring parents is pitiful :)

[DukeLeto]

Here here!  It's time people take some responsibility for themsleves and their children and stop trying to push it off onto other people!

[Seal89999]

Here here!

[Terror]

oh come on... i don't see when violent games ever fucked up my youth.... or is it fucked up?  ??? . Hmm, only god knows i guess. No but realy, i'm glad the Netherlands are realy easy in this, also with movies. At least i don't have to be 21 years old to watch american pie like in the USA  ;D . Now that was stupid hahah.

[Gobalopper]

An R rating means no one under 17 can get in unless they have a parent with them. NC-17 is the rating where no one under 17 can get in.

[Navaros]

An R rating means no one under 17 can get in unless they have a parent with them. NC-17 is the rating where no one under 17 can get in.

NC-17 is also a death-sentence to any movie that gets it since ads for that movie may ONLY air at ridiculously-late hours of the night, ie: after prime-time.

[Cyborg]

Do anyone really care about the age limits?

In Norway, they are just some numbers printed on the cover. No one ever pays any attention to them.

[Super-ness]

probably cos u cant understand them  ;)

[Sneakgab]

Well, it's not exactly a parent's duty yo investigate a game, but when was that even neccesary?

I have never purchased a game with significantly ''adult'' (Strange that we use the word adult to define all that we find disgusting,animalistic,immature,e.t.c) content

The worst I've seen is postal, and the only slightly seriously offensive thing I've seen in that game is when I watched my freind urinate into somebody's mouth till they threy up and kept on urinating into their mouth while they were throwing up... creating a sickly display of poorly done green and orangeish graphics...