MCV

It's nothing bad at all for the industry, they're just making it harder on lousy parents. and quite rightly so.

Though how many kiddies will shed a tear come GTA IV's release?

With a new 'legally enforced' classification system being introduced, and ministers advising parents to remove PCs and consoles from childrens bedrooms, the government must have also started work on their plan to move all children into special camps so they can be properly supervised by responsible politicians.

I don't get it. What is actually changing and how does it spell doom for the industry? Games cannot currently be sold to kids under the age on the box either. If all that is changed by consistently using BBFC logos instead of PEGI is that parents will "get" the rating more, how is this bad?

I am pretty sure I am missing something here...?

Hi Adam - nice to see you on here mate. The industry seems to be behind the introduction of BBFC ratings on all games. Will basically mean we may see '12'-ratings on some titles, 'PG', 'U', etc. and harsher penalties for retailers who sell 'adult' games to kids. I don't know what the future holds for PEGI. The 'doom and gloom' is more to do with the media reaction - and whether or not they make it look as though a 'battle' is being won against the industry. Which is obviously nonsense. If the Guardian's going to get this excited by these industry-backed proposals, what is The Sun, Daily Mail etc. going to make of it? Should be a fun month...

Larry: quite the opposite- they're making it *eaier* on lousy parents as now said parents have an excuse not to bother checking up on their kids- if Little Timmy gets hold o***ame he shouldn't, now it's the fault of the retailer because he "shouldn't have been sold the game".

Worse, this is the "more censorship" the government promised on TWO seperate occasions wouldn't happen.

On top of that, if this doesn't come with even stricter classification guidelines, I'll be very surprised.

Ladies and gentlemen, adult videogames, in the UK at least, are now dead. Get out while you can.

For clarity, the bit that got starred out there was "o***ame".

Okay, I'll try that again: "of some game".

if Little Timmy gets hold of some game he shouldn't

aparrently "a" game trips the swear filter.

Larry, I expect no child will shed a tear come 29th April, as on previous releases of GTA, if *spoilt child here* wants a game, the parent will probably end up buying it for him or her anyway. This happened a *LOT* for Vice City; I was working at GAME and while (I was always told) selling games to people below the specified age was illegal, parents would still buy it. I even once had a customer have a go at me for selling Vice City to a parent when it was "obviously not for her". I knew that, the nosey customer knew that, but there was nothing I could do to stop it as the parent has every right and will still have every right to buy a film/ game if they want.

The system may help, but it certainly is not fool proof and the only thing coming from this (and a report that, given who is writing it, has NO chance of being subjective and unbiased) is more bad imagry of the game industry and clueless journalists using the controversy to get a high-ranking story in a paper or news programme.

To M Kelly, the swear filter searches for words that may have space between them, so writing "of", then "a", then "game" means the word we use for cigarette is detected and pointlessly filtered. Not only that, but that word used to mean ****sexual is an american meaning, so the filter system here is buggy in more than one way. Still, at least MCV doesn't **** off games. :)

apparently a word commonly used to refer to someone who sleeps around and begins with "sla" and ends with "g" is too offensive. Maybe if I were to refer Tanya Byron as such, then fair enough, but I'll reserve that pending the findings of her report. ;)

You brits are spineless to allow such a **** as this do your parenting for you. How much of your rights do you plan on handing over to scum who hide behind legislation deemed 'for the children" ? Rather than take on meaningful issues they take the easy route and attempt to pass legislation that they can do from the comfort of their desks.

You are even bigger sheep than we are in the US.

I worked out which word it was *actually* filtering, but it still seems silly. :)

How ironic that commentary on an article about censorship has been censored itself...

Adam, you miss most things. Except for McDonald's opening, of course. I think the point is that now, every game will be rated. So instead of just that nasties catching a BBFC warning, everything will now have to be rated.

My concern is the amount of resource this will need. How on earth is the BBFC going to fund a program that looks into, in some depth, every single game release? One assumes they'll talk to publishers and ask them to rate the games themselves, by comparing the content against a checklist. This being the case, why bother with the BBFC moniker at all? If the industry ends up regulating its own content, it should stand behind its self-policing. Why give this up to the BBFC? Surely ELSPA should be looking at this obvious win for the industry...

How much tax money does the games industry generate in the UK anyway? Remember, if they make it too pissy, people will just start importing PAL games from more sensible countries.

cant really see this making much differance and dont know how you can say this is the end of adult gaming the the uk as yet they havent said anything about banning games

The new proposals would make it illegal for shops to sell any game carrying the new ratings, says the newspaper – suggesting that BBFC classification will be brought in for every new release.

Damn, illegal to sell any game with these ratings - that's gonna hurt the industry ;-)

I work in the games industry. This is really bad news for us unless the government goes ahead with its plan for everybody to have an ID card. How many 12 year olds do you know that carry ID with them, the only thing they can have is there passport and noone really wants to carry that on them all the time. I think this is rediculous. the 15 and 18 rating system is fine at the minute and nowadays all the parents buy their kids the games anyway.

I think this is more ill thought out legislation. I would be better pleased, if instead of more legislation, some time was spent in educating parents on why they should not buy and encourage their precious children to play age rated games.

But, in one fell swoop the industry, in collusion with the government, has moved the entire burden onto the shoulders of the retailer. Can you tell the difference between an eleven and a twelve year old? But spotting it will mean the difference between a pat on the back and a criminal conviction.

I think someone has to say that. This is the end of the PEGI system and a demonstration that the ISFE guys, who run PEGI, are completely incompetent....Many have told them about 2 years ago to stay on top of things on violence (not run behind every polemic) and to actually DO something, instead of incompetently "lobbying" Europe...

"But, in one fell swoop the industry, in collusion with the government, has moved the entire burden onto the shoulders of the retailer. Can you tell the difference between an eleven and a twelve year old? But spotting it will mean the difference between a pat on the back and a criminal conviction."

So I take you disagree with the way films are done as well? Or you just think all employee's of shops that sell games are muppets? I hope its not the latter. I don't really have any issues with the ages of kids. Hmm I think I could have phrased that better...

Dumping PEGI and sticking to the one (nationally recognised) system is a good thing. The BBFC icons are something that cannot be misinterpreted by "irresponsible parents" (not the the PEGI age ratings were complicated, but clearly there was some wriggle room for the uneducated or those plain disinterested in what their kids get up to in their bedrooms).

However, there does need to be a plan put in place to not place all the more responsibility on retailers and to educate parents as to why buying little Jonny aged 10 1/4 a copy of GTA IV is not such a bright idea, particularly as they probably wouldn't entertain the idea of buying them Good Fellas.

The cry of 'censorship' is not helping the industry since some of the grief could have been avoided if the industry and opted in for universal BBFC ratings a long while ago.

Granted not all of the grief could have been avoided, given the desperate nature of the likes of the Daily Mail for a scurilous headline, but a clear and universally recognised icon like the red BBFC 18 certificate on a game box would have shifted the emphasis on to the parents for letting their kids play them in the first place.

And retailers feeling short-changed need to ask themselves what the likes of HMV and Blockbuster do when they sell 18 certficate movies, or stores sell cigarettes and alcohol - surely the same issue applies?

this is a great move - having two systems on the go at once is confusing for consumers. one system, and more importantly one system that is consistent across games and films, is a lot better. it should get the media off our backs too.

"moved to the retailer".

ID them, or make them bring their parent in (and at 40-50 notes a game I'd wonder how many times a payment card won't be involved) or it's no different to selling tobacco, alcohol, age restricted films, knives or anything else that carries some form of responsibility to the retailer.

I assume that when retailers take in games in part-ex they ID and record all transactions to make sure the goods aren't stolen and to record everything for tax purposes? So, really whats left?
Maybe retailers should introduce a membership scheme to check ID and use the information to mail out to customers? No ID or no membership no part exchange or rental and no sale to anyone who looks under 18?

My question to Chris is, where do you think this should be enforced then, where else CAN it be enforced?

The onerous should go on the parent but as you can see in todays world people have children and then when it suits them abdicate responsibility. They confuse school with a childminding service and generally won't hear a word said about their parenting skills or lack of them.

And finally **Waves hello to Adam**

When I worked for EB (Game) back in the day we used the over 18 and 15 BBFC then. I don’t think it will change anything unless mums and dads understand that video games are not just a cartoon you play. Even now kids say I’m saving for GTA IV the mum or dad will buy it for them. Every night I hear kids on xbox 360 playing COD4. I would love the day I never hear a kid singing down the mic in a high pitched tone. As I try and kill the sniper on the roof! I would say the shops and game makers can do as much as possible to stop it. But you can’t stop a mum or dad that wants 5 minutes peace… The only time your get a mum or dad moaning is when little Jimmy goes on a killing rampage at a school. Matrix and Mario made my Jimmy do it! LOL

Parents should control their children, not the government.
I actually think that games like GTA are good for kids. They act as a catharsis to get all their natural agression out of them.
For some sense read this (written by proper experts) http://southeastpsych.blogspot.com/2008/02/video-games-and-aggression.html

The difference this will make is not at the selling end of the line but at the development/publisher end. God knows how long it will take them to approve a game or how much this will cost. Let alone the poor producer or project manager who will no doubt have to fill in form after form just to enter a submission. But with the amount of money involved and the popularitly of games it was bound to happen one time or another. Lets just hope they find someone who knows and understands the games industry to set this up and run it.

but sniping american pre-teens is so much fun on cod4!

the best way to control children is by drugging their milk. and then putting them on a plane. short of that, bbfc ratings on games is a damn fine idea.

Some parents continue to let their children watch unsuitable films, and so it will be with games. The amount of kids that I see with their PSPs loaded up with GTA beggars belief! And besides, how is the guy in GAME (or wherever) going to know who the ultimate recipient of GTA 4 is going to be anyway?? It won't change my attitude - my kids will push me to see or play games like GTA but be a responsible parent I tell them to **** off or they'll get a cap in their a$$!

Also this could affect sales and give people a reasion to not buy games. To prove the point then look at TV market, people do not have issue with downloading the lastest big hit show first US then months later here.

Another death nail in UK development business.