Activision, the company that vomits forth a new Tony Hawk game in your direction every time Brandon DiCamillo gets kicked in the crotch, recently conducted a survey of a large group of parents regarding their views towards the ESRB rating system (y’know, that “Your Mom is E for Everyone” thing), and the results are somewhat surprising.
To hear Jack Thompson and the other politicians who make their careers on gaming controversy tell it, the rating system is not only inadequate in informing otherwise good parents that the games will turn their children into church-burning, town-pillaging rapists, it’s also almost completely hidden from the parents who are tricked by evil teenage sales clerks at their local Gamestop into buying Grand Theft Porno for their sweet, innocent child. Well Jack, turns out that just isn’t the case.
Activision’s survey found that 84% of parents surveyed were familiar with the ratings system, 79% of which said that they paid very close attention to it. Not only that, but 68% said that the system is effective in determing how appropriate a game might be for their child and 56% said that the ESRB system was their top factor in deciding whether to buy a game or not!
Since the ESRB (a company voluntarily set up by the gaming industry to rate it’s own games) seems to be doing the job that is being asked of it, what else could be causing all of these children to go totally wacko and start stabbing their friends and raping beagles? I suppose it must be the parents! Of course, you’ll never hear a politician tell someone that their child is a waste of flesh because they themselves are a waste of flesh, but you will definitely hear Destructoid tell them that.
(And then we’ll bite them with shiny metal teeth!)
