Age Ratings Unlikely To Remain Mandatory

Censorship organisations could move to an advisory capacity in light of increasingly global market, the VSC tells us.

The Video Standards Council, the non-profit UK organisation which monitors video and videogame standards, has suggested that certification bodies may move away from mandatory ratings models in response to increasingly global distribution channels. The revelation follows this week's news that Good Old Games had changed its location controls ahead of the release of The Witcher 2, allowing Australian players to circumvent the country's censorship laws.

"It seems inevitable that such systems will have an impact on the way national regulators control online content though the more authoritarian regimes won't have any qualms about shutting down a site if they deem it necessary," the VSC told us. "However, the more benign censorship/ratings organisations will probably move away from the mandatory model and replace it with an advisory systems which puts the onus on consumers to make informed buying decisions through the provision of detailed consumer information."

Asked whether moves such as GOG’s could result in legal ramifications, the VSC highlighted the difficulties of monitoring an international market: "In terms of online availability of such games, we do not believe that any such ramifications currently exist or can be enforced since any national restrictions are very difficult to enforce where, for example, content is delivered from a foreign server."

But despite this, the VSC doesn’t believe that local certification bodies are in danger of becoming irrelevant in today’s globalised industry.

"We believe [local certification bodies] remain very relevant even in this age of global distribution. As stated previously, it may be that the nature of censorship and ratings will change to a more advisory-centred system, but ratings systems continue to provide consumers - particularly parents of children - with very useful content information which we know they find very helpful indeed. We believe the public tends to trust the judgement and advice of the more independent, established and respected ratings organisations and will continue to do so."


http://www.next-gen.biz/news/age-ratings-unlikely-to-remain-mandatory