Helping parents understand the content of video games: updating the ESRB rating system

ABSTRACT Video gaming has changed dramatically over the past three decades. A greater number of in-game features, life-like appearances, streaming, and new modes of gameplay have made video gaming engaging to all age groups. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) represents the North American video gaming industry and established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in 1994. The purpose of the ESRB was to provide parents and consumers with more information about the potentially problematic content and features in video games by creating video game ratings. Although video games have changed over the decades, the ESRB has undergone minimal changes. This commentary critically investigates the current ESRB rating system to propose methods for improvement both internally and externally. Two major areas of improvement were identified for the ESRB. The first was to provide parents with more information on the contents and interactability of video games by adding to and modifying the existing ratings. The second was to take measures to improve the video gaming industry’s understanding on how to best protect consumers through changes to the internal ESRB rating structure and creating external research partnerships. We call upon the ESRB and ESA to better inform parents and protect consumers from potentially harmful video gaming content and features.