Lawmaker Spots Conflict of Interest in Video Game Rating System
by Ed Thomas
August 4, 2005
(AgapePress) - A California legislator who's been critical of the ability of the video game industry to police itself says he and other concerned parties now have proof of their suspicions. California Assemblyman Leland Yee says the revelation of secret codes built into certain video games subvert the ratings supposedly established to inform parents and protect young players.Yee, the Speaker Pro-tem of the California State Assembly, says feedback from video gamers has revealed that "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" and many other games have hidden, often explicitly sexual or violent content that can be unlocked with downloadable modification software readily available on the Internet. "I mean if you want to talk about a smoking gun, that is exactly the smoking gun that we have been looking for," he says.
This revelation only increases Yee's longtime suspicions of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB, because of what he calls a serious conflict of interest -- a regulating body funded by members of its own industry. He says the board members who rate the games are so much under the thumb of the video game industry that "it is extremely difficult for the ESRB to do an objective job to really protect our parents and our children."
Also, the California lawmaker points out that ESRB reviewers rate video games by taking samples of them only, which means that game producers can hide elements from the board's view. This sampling method, he contends, makes it easy for reviewers to miss aspects of game play and content that need to be considered carefully.
That means "when parents now go to these stores and purchase these M-rated games and other rated games," Yee says, "they're not even sure what's in there because the ESRB themselves don't even know." He feels this is why his idea of creating state legislation to establish regulatory guidelines for video game content is beginning to be duplicated in states outside California, perhaps most notably in Illinois.
Following public pressure, Rockstar North, the developer of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," has now changed the game's rating from "Mature" to "Adults Only" and announced that the company is providing new labels for the versions of the game that are already in stores. But despite the video game manufacturer's confession that it intentionally neglected to tell about the presence of hidden content within its popular "Grand Theft Auto" game, Yee is critical of the ESRB for failing to know -- or discover -- the truth.
Yee says the Entertainment Software Ratings Board was reluctant to respond to his complaints long ago that the violence in "Grand Theft Auto" made it deserving of an Adults Only rating. He believes that reluctance, as well as the board's failure to detect the inappropriate content, is related to a conflict of interest between the ESRB's mandate and its ties to the video game industry.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
