ESRB ratings and the parents who use them

The holiday shopping season is upon us whether we like it or not. Crazy drivers, crowded stores and packed parking lots are just a few of the wonderful things that we have to look forward to in the next few months. But on top of that, the video game industry gets a magnifying glass put on them because kids love getting video games for Christmas.

Its the same story every year. Some nut goes out and harms others and video games are to blame. This is of course is followed up by every news outlet discussing how parents could let their children play such horrible video games. Well lets be honest, times are changing. Less and less are you going to have parents who don't know a thing about technology or in this case video games. It's more likely now-a-days that parents grew up playing video games and have a good understanding about what their children are playing. Not only that but I am sure that more and more the parents are playing the games along side their kids.

My point is that the ESRB rating is plastered everywhere. It's in the store, on the stores website, on the games themselves. You almost can't buy a video game without seeing the ESRB rating. Now I know it's up to the discretion of the parents whether or not their child should play a certain video game but the ESRB rating will always be there. And that really is all that the video game industry can do to help purchasers decide if the game they are buying is correct for them or their loved ones.

The thing that some people do not understand is that the video game industry has such a large target audience to deal with. A person any age can play them and games come out for all ages. The general public and more importantly, parents, need to realize this because they have to know that not all video games are going to be right for their 9 year old. Which brings us full circle to the ESRB rating. Parents, do yourselves a favor and pay attention to them when buying games for your kids. If it's an M rated game and you are buying it for a 7 year old, you should probably rethink your purchase because it has an M rating for a reason.

As video games become more popular and a bigger part of our culture, it is important that parents understand them and realize that there may be things in a game that they don't want their kids to see. So be smart about your choices of video games this year and remember that there are a lot of games out there. Not all of them are for your children.

For more information on the ESRB ratings, follow the link provided to the right.

-Nick Recchia