Games industry calls for single rating system

Video games in the UK are currently rated by the British Board of Film Classification

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has called on Europe to adopt a single rating system for video games.

Paul Jackson, director of ELSPA, told the Westminster Media Forum that the government must recognise the decisions made in the Byron Review of computer and video games.

Jackson is pushing for adoption of the Pan European Games Ratings Information (PEGI) as the de facto standard rating system across Europe.

"For the games industry, when we talk about child protection, we talk about PEGI. PEGI is the solution for today, and the solution for tomorrow," he said.

"Only PEGI fully assesses all games content. It is designed specifically for interactive software. It understands games and their potential for infinite variations. That's why it is backed by the vast majority of the computer games industry."

Video games in the UK are currently rated by the British Board of Film Classification which has long rated video content.

The US Entertainment Software Rating Board is also used by many games companies when titles are distributed in the UK.

Jackson applauded the work of the Byron Review, noting that the only criticism the games industry had was that it did not go far enough.

He added that the games industry as a whole understands its responsibility to educate the public about the PEGI ratings system, and pledged support for discussions with government.

"People are not stupid and should not be treated as such. When they see an 18 roundel on a box they know what it means regardless of the current classifier," he said.

"Nevertheless, it is essential that the public has confidence in any ratings administrator."

ELSPA's call for the adoption of a single rating system was backed by a va riety of major video game developers, including Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Sega and Ubisoft.

"If you look at the PEGI system against the film ratings board in the UK, you will see that PEGI is the only system that has the power to prevent games publishers distributing unsuitable content to children," said Mike Hayes, president and chief executive at Sega Europe.

"It can ban a publisher's entire output, rather than just a single title. This power is backed by the entire industry."