The Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system has, today (30/07/2012), come into-force in the UK. This system, among other things, will make it an offence punishable by prison to sell video games to under-age people, and is aimed largely at providing a clear age regulation system for parents. But how effective will it be?
Historically, Video Games have been subject to fairly light regulation in the United Kingdom. Since the 1980s, when their use first became widespread amongst the general public, only three games have actually been ‘banned’ (The Punisher, Carmageddon and Manhunt 2). In fact, all three later had their bans repealed.
Regulation has, until today, fallen to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to enforce, and so the areas of focus when applying an age-restriction to a video game were much the same as those pertaining to television and films (BBFC’s primary focus). However, critics have often pointed out that video games offer a deeper form of immersion than movies, and that there are an increasing number of ‘open world’ games, which allow much more freedom and afford greater moral ambiguity to players. PEGI’s review-system is more refined and focused on the level of interaction, on-top of the content itself.
Take, for example, the infamous ‘No Russian’ level of Call of Duty’s Modern Warfare 2 game. It has the player take the role of a CIA agent undercover in a terrorist organisation, forced to take part in horrific acts at a Russian Airport to maintain his cover. If a film were to use the same content, the rating might depend upon the way in which the scene was portrayed. However, PEGI is dedicated solely to video game rating, and its system keeps in mind the interactivity of the content being portrayed.
Part of PEGI’s new regulations, oft cited in other publications, is the legal connotations of the ratings. In the past, a number of people saw video game age restrictions as a ‘guideline’. While this was not necessarily true, little was done to dispel the notion, and the penalty for selling underage people games was generally little more than a fine. That generalisation looks set to change, however, as under the newer, stricter laws, selling underage people video games can earn a maximum sentence of six years in prison, and a personal fine of up to £5,000.
But will this change anything? Often, children or teenagers will ask older siblings or parents to purchase age-restricted games on their behalf. PEGI offers information packages to parents, in an effort to raise awareness of their restrictions. However, the practical issue with such a scheme is that if an adult is willing to buy a game on a child’s behalf, they are unlikely to be aware of or willing to invest in such things.
The newly-enforced PEGI rating system will also not apply to games shared over the internet, independently produced titles (unless sold commercially) and similar. With that in-mind, although PEGI will tighten the existing restrictions on retail distribution of games, whether or not their regulations will genuinely change the way interactive media is consumed is arguably unlikely to be affected a great deal.
