Culture Minister for the UK Margaret Hodge has announced a consultation on whether ratings for video games should follow in the footsteps of those applied to films by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
At present, the BBFC only rates games considered to have significant adult content such as sexual material or extreme violence, with all other games rated under an industry administered scheme - the Pan European Game Information (Pegi) system.
The consultation, which follows the publication of Dr Tanya Byron’s review of the risks faced by children if exposed to harmful or inappropriate material on the internet or in video games, will see the government establish a new method of changing game ratings from one of four options: a hybrid BBFC/Pegi system; Pegi ratings only; BBFC ratings only; or no change beyond the introduction of a scheme to ensure shops and suppliers comply.
"The current system of classification comes from a time when video games were in their infancy," said Hodge. "In recent years there have been extraordinary developments in technology, with increasingly realistic gameplay and highly evolved storylines. At the same time more and more games are now accessed online.
"We have also seen a big growth in games aimed at a grown-up market, which invariably include scenes unsuitable for young people. The games market has simply outgrown the classification system, so today we are consulting on options that will make games classification useful and relevant again."
It would appear, however, that the coin-op amusement sector is, for now, safe from these regulation changes as there has been no mention of video games in arcades in Dr Byron’s report or from Culture Minister Hodge.
Commenting on the Minister’s consultation, Sega Europe’s Justin Burke told InterGame: "The video amusement sector provides entertainment for a wide range of players and spectators and has always been self regulating. Titles that appear in both the amusement and console market are far more toned down in our sector.
"The console sector has a huge and increasing following from over 18s and targets and produces for that market, which result in far different games to our sector."
