advice for parents

• UNDERSTANDING ESRB CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
  You're standing in your local game store trying to decide between two games for your eleven-year-old. Both are rated E10+ and both are at the top of your kid's wish list. You flip over the box and look at the ESRB content descriptors. One says "Mild Language" and "Cartoon Violence". The other says "Mild Suggestive Themes" and "Comic Mischief". You wonder … what does that mean?
  
  If you're a parent who regularly checks ESRB ratings, you're not alone. According to a recent study, more than 80% of parents pay close attention how the Entertainment Software Rating Board evaluates games. Yet understanding the nuances of these ratings is something that a lot of us could use some help with.
  
  Many of us already know that to take full advantage of the ESRB rating system, we should be looking at the rating on the box and the content descriptors listed on the back. But what do these descriptors mean? Fortunately for parents, the ESRB has made it easier than ever to find out.
  
  Available on their website are two helpful resources. The first, the ESRB Game Ratings & Descriptor Guide offers a detailed breakdown of the meanings of each of the ESRB Rating Symbols and corresponding Content Descriptors. This can be found at http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp.
  
  The second resource is the ESRB's Rating Summaries. These summaries offer a more in-depth look at what was evaluated in a game—and why. This gives parents the opportunity to determine whether the game is appropriate for their child based on the specific activity in the game which resulted in a content descriptor. Ratings Summaries can be found at: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/.
  
  To get a better understanding, we reviewed the ratings of two recent games.
  
  Imagine Party Babyz
  A cursory look at the Imagine Party Babyz videogame for Wii indicates that the game is rated E for Everyone and is therefore appropriate for ages six and over. On the back it includes the content descriptor "Comic Mischief".
  
  According to the Game Ratings & Descriptor Guide, Comic Mischief means "Depictions or dialogue involving slapstick or suggestive humor". After consulting the ESRB's Ratings Summary we find that "during the snowball fighting mini-game, players can hit other baby characters and sometimes a creature that pops out of the ground."
  
  Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party
  With its rating of E10+, we immediately know that Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party for Wii is suitable for ages ten and up. A glance at the back of the box indicates that there are quite a few content descriptors: "Animated Blood", "Cartoon Violence", "Crude Humor", and "Mild Language".
  
  On the surface this may sound alarming, but a review of the Ratings Summary on the ESRB site provides far more detailed information. For example, the summary indicates that the Comic Violence includes "a movie-themed game in which the player sets buildings on fire as if they are in a monster movie."Crude Humor includes "a game in which a rabbid must use flatulence as a propellant." The Animated Blood descriptor can be attributed to "a mini-game involving shaving depict[ing] rabbids with small amounts of blood on bandages covering their ears." And Mild Language is due to "the names of certain segments (e.g.'rabbidass')."
  
  Fortunately for us, the ESRB offers an excellent Resources for Parents page on their website (http://www.esrb.org/about/resources.jsp) that includes links to family-friendly game reviews, information on parental controls, and, of course, their own guides and summaries. And if that wasn't enough, they also provide a downloadable brochure, "A Parent's Guide to Video Games and Parental Controls" (http://www.esrb.org/about/news/downloads/ESRB_PTA_Brochure-web_version.pdf) which features expanded information and resources.
  
  So next time you're about to stop by the game store, stop into one of these great resources to learn more about what's in the games your kids are playing.