Pengguna perihatin

2009/03/16

By : Lydia Gomez

DO parents really know what they are buying when they pick up video games for their children?

Video games have ratings to warn parents of their contents but in many cases, parents and vendors are not aware of how important these ratings are, or even of their presence.

Federation of Malaysian Consumers' Association secretary-general and chief executive of the National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC), Muhammad Sha'ani Abdullah, said traders and buyers alike did not take the ratings seriously.

"These classifications are given by the producers of the games but when they are sold, traders rarely make it a practice to sell according to the recommended age group. They do not see how serious an impact it can have on children," he said.

Sha'ani said exposure to negative content at a very young age could affect children later in their life.

"It is similar to what happened when junk food and fast food became available to children. We are now seeing many obese children.

"Similarly, in 20 years, we may have adults who practise the wrong values," he said.

He added that it was important for parents to check the ratings of games bought by their children.

"There is no law on video games. Therefore, these ratings must be actively promoted to parents."

Another consumer advocate said the government should consider imposing rules on the sale of video games, much like the way children were not allowed to watch certain movies.

He admitted, however, it could be difficult to enforce because many of the video games on the market were pirated copies and sold "underground".

"The onus is on parents. Just as many failed to realise the dangers posed by junk food, today's parents are also failing to realise the dangers of violent video games and television shows," he said.

He said the government was doing something about violence on TV by having certain programmes aired only later in the night.

"However, for video games, it is the parents' duty to ensure they don't contain violent content.

"Parents must ensure they are not building a generation of fat, violent kids."

THE Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory body that puts up ratings, advertising guidelines and online privacy principles for computer and video games and other entertainment software in the United States. These ratings are a general guide to the age limit set for various genres of video games available in most countries.

- EC (Early Childhood): Contains content that is considered suitable for children aged 3 and older. Contains no material that parents would find inappropriate.

- E (Everyone): Contains content that is considered unsuitable for children under 6. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.

- E10+ (Everyone 10 and older): Contains content that is considered unsuitable for children under 10. Titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes.

- T (Teen): Contains content that is considered unsuitable for children under 13. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humour, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language.

- M (Mature): Contains content that is more suitable for people aged 17 and above. Those below that age must be companied by adult in order to play the games. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

- AO (Adults Only): Contains content that is not suitable for people under 18. These may include adult video games that depict sex and nudity and/or extreme depictions of violence that include blood and gore.

- RP (Rating Pending): Product has been submitted to the Entertainment Software Rating Board and is awaiting final rating. This symbol appears only in advertising prior to a game's release.