The Ratings Game

kinda disappointed that Australia's OFLC wasn't mentioned...its both government operated and legally enforcable. it may only have a small number of classifications for the teen years, but is generally pretty good
G - General Audiences
PG - Parental Guidance
M - Mature
MA - Mature Audiences (Restricted to 15+)
R - Restricted 18+ (although games aren't classified under this yet, there's alot of us that want it introduced)

and like the ESRB it also has the content descriptors, with optional "Mild" and "Strong".
Classification is generally required before sale or distribution in Australia. Classification involves a fee (i think they all do), a description of the game and a copy of the game...so it seems like they actually play every game to determine its content... 1 Up on US and EU there. Appeals for reclassification is also available.

All in all it kinda seems like an ideal system. My only gripe is the (current) lack of R 18+ for games, but iirc most games that receive that high a rating elsewhere in the world generally get given an MA rating here...or they don't get rated at all or get toned down, in which case generally suck anyway

http://www.oflc.gov.au/ if anyone wants to do some further reading

 

Maybe one of the reasons parent are terrible at choosing age appropriate games is that graphics cards and games consoles weren't around in their youth... Even parents who we could describe as "good parents" in other ways will buy, for example, GTA for their child because they don't want it [the child] to be left out when all their friends have it.

Having said that, most well brought up children, excluding those will genuine mental health issues, are more than capable of separating games from reality. It's important that parents know what their kids are playing, make sure the content isn't too outrageous, and vitally, don't let them play too much! because then they become fat, stupid, short tempered and have a short attention span. lol

One last thing, the US system likely censors some violence, but it seems that America goes berserk when nudity and sex are involved. GTA Hot Coffee mod anyone? That imitation of fully clothed cartoonish sex is hardly going to inspire already randy teenagers.

 

I used to love blobby discs when I was growing up, anyone remember those? Let me play games like GTA, Twisted Metal, Duke Nukem, Quake etc without having to get my parents to buy them from a shop for me

Like others have said though, a child with a sound mind can easily seperate a game from RL, and if they play a game and go out and reinact a scene that could cause serious harm/death then they have something wrong up there anywho

 

What I don't like is all the governments (such as state governments in the US) and others that want to implement their own ideas of what is and isn't acceptable and are trying to do end runs around the ESRB and PEGI and the like. If you don't think that the "E for everyone" rating given to People Hunter 2007 is appropriate, go to the ESRB and complain. If the ESRB in general is not doing its job, then the ESRB should be fixed, not overridden by state based decisions on what is and isn't ok.