The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of rating computer games with regard to the content and requirements of the game. The developmental stage of the child will play a crucial role in determining the age appropriateness of the content of a game.

Children develop from a stage where right and wrong are set rules and the realism that these moral values are determined by society to questioning these moral values. From the age of three years children start to identify with role models. The virtual reality of characters in a game, make it possible for these children to associate and imitate these characters. This is complicated further by their inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality. In the same way that violence accumulates in games, so does aggressive behavior accumulate into violent behavior.

Parents should however not only be guided by a specific rating system, as the standards of these rating systems are pre-determined and the parent could find the content unsuitable for his/her child.

Trying to establish a direct link between game violence and violent behavior depends on which side of the gaming industry you find yourself; you are a user, a distributor or an academic.

Violence is used by distributors to sell more copies- more kills and more explosions mean more money. This is certainly the case with games like Doom, Quake and Mortal Combat that have sold millions of copies. Violent action has become more realistic than ever before and has become the goal of many games. For instance if a player completes all levels of the game Carmageddon a maximum of 33 000 people would have had to be killed.

Academics in various disciplines like Psychology, Education and Criminology have investigated a possible link between violent games and the influence thereof on the behavior of children. They found that some computer games appear to have a bad influence on children while others do not. Some children play violent games and become violent. Other children play violent games and don't become more aggressive. Some children become violent without exposure to violent imagery. Others remain passive no matter what they play. While the search to establish a direct link still has to be proven, one thing is undisputed however- violent children watch violent movies and play violent electronic games.

This trend has intensified public concern regarding the potential harmful effects of electronic interactive games. As a result, legislative hearings on the issue have been held in several countries and video game rating systems have been developed for use in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Australia.

The use of the terms rating systems and censorship seemed to be used intertwined on the Internet. Therefor it is necessary to distinguish between these terms to prevent any confusion for the purpose of this paper.

Definition of terms

Censorship occurs when a restriction is placed on free speech or expression based on the concept that certain kinds of speech are of low social value and therefor classified as obscene. The government and lobby groups usually implement censorship. Due to this restrictive nature censorship is often surrounded in controversy as it is viewed by some as unconstitutional.

Rating systems are less restrictive and more informative than censorship and can be defined as an act of assigning a rank or value that has been pre-determined. For the purpose of this paper rating systems are use to indicate the age appropriateness of the content and requirements of the game.

There is however a gray area between censorship and rating systems which provides the opportunity for a rating system to function as a method of implementing censorship. A value is assigned to the content of Internet information whether it is a game or a web site. According to the value assigned web browses or filters are used to block the availability of the content and therefor the game or web site is censored. This censorship by rating systems varies from individual to individual and depends on the individual's preference. The Government does not implement it. The rating is conducted by human reviewers, computers and or a hybrid of the two (Online Rating Systems. [Online] ) .

Rating systems

In table one Cybercop, Netnanny and Cyberpatrol operate as rating systems that function through blocking software. Censorship is placed on content that is viewed by individual preference as inappropriate.

                                 Table 1 Examples of rating systems
 

Cybercop, Netnanny, Cyberpatrol,  Net Shepherd	Rating systems that function in the same way as censorship
Safesurf	Uses a combination of rating classification, filtering and parental education
Truste	Identifies web sites that comply with acceptable privacy guidelines
PICS (Platform for Internet Content . selection)	Provides a framework for rating systems and is not a rating system in itself
Evaluweb	Uses a computer to analyse document content
ORC (Objective Ratings Criteria)	Hybrid between third- party and self rating
ESRB (Entertainment software Rating. Board)	Independent board that developed a standardized rating system for interactive entertainment software products. Provides specific information regarding age appropriateness.
RSACI (Recreational software Advisory Council)	Provides information about the level of sex, nudity, violence, and offensive language in software games and web sites.

 

Age appropriateness is a core element of many rating systems. Societies emphasize age due to the fact that it establishes specific expectations of a person and enables the society to evaluate a person (Gerdes, 1988:11). By determining the age appropriateness of computer games will be indicative of the content of the game and if it is suitable or proper for a specific age group.

To illustrate how a rating system functions the Entertainment Software Board (ESRB) will be used as an example.

The Recreational software Advisory Council

This rating system was implemented in 1994 and most North American electronic game manufacturers have adopted the ESRB system (Video and Computer Home Rating System. [Online]).

The ESRB uses age appropriateness to form suitable categories and are as follows (About Entertainment Software Rating Board. [Online]):

· Early childhood [EC]
Content is suitable for children ages three and older.

· Everyone [E]
The content is suitable for people ages 6 and older. This category may contain minimal violent content, mild or strong language and/or suggestive themes.

· Teens [T]
Contains content that is suitable for persons ages 13 years and older. Mild to strong language, violence and suggestive themes.

· Mature [M]
The content is considered suitable for people' 17 years and older. The product may include more intense violence or language than products in the Teen category. These titles may also indicate mature sexual themes.

· Adults only [AO]
This content is suitable only for adults. The product may include graphic depictions of sex and /or violence. This product is not intended to be sold or rented to persons under the age of 18 years.

· Rating Pending [RP]
This product has been submitted for rating.

Besides rating the age appropriateness of the game the ESRB also use content descriptors that offer additional information with regard to: Violence, language, sexual content and other descriptors for example the use of tobacco or alcohol, drugs etc.

The focus of this paper is violence and therefor I will explore rating according to the violence level.

The rating of the level of violence according to the ESRB is categorized in the following way:

- mild animated violence
- mild realistic violence
- comic mischief
- animated violence
- realistic violence
- animated blood and gore
- realistic blood and gore
- animated blood
- realistic blood.

Violence is often accompanied by the use of strong language and can contain sexual content. The ESRB use the categories of mild and strong language and the sexual content is divided into categories of suggestive themes, mature sexual themes and strong sexual content.

The controversy of violence

The use of the term violence is often met with an emotional response. It represents not only physical and verbal force but also that which is viewed by society as unlawful and immoral. It can therefor be said that violence consists of moral, social and cognitive issues. An evaluation of the potential harm violence can have on children will have to be centered on their moral, cognitive and social development.

The moral development

Moral development is one of the most important developmental stages of the pre-school child (2-6 years) as this is the age group wherein a child learns what is right and what is wrong. According to Kohlberg (Louw, Gerdes & Meyer, 1985:254) the child's behavior is guided by either to receive an award or to prevent punishment. They do not possess a moral system of their own but is in the process of acquiring standards The person who the child learns from (authority figure) is therefor of utmost importance.

Towards the end of middle childhood (9-10 years) moral realism changes and in this stage the child realizes that moral rules can change and that society uses moral rules as a way of implementing social control. It is at this stage that the moral development of a child can be challenged and with goal orientated guidance the child can develop his own moral thoughts.

At this stage the locus of control is very important: who is taking responsibility for his/her actions? Is the locus outside the child or is he/she blaming others for what has happened. The ideal is that the child develops an internal locus of control (Louw, et al, 1985:328). By taking responsibility the child will bear the consequences of his actions.

At this stage if a child is taking part in violent games, without adequate supervision and understanding, the senselessness and consequences of violence will not be emphasized, as it should. Although computer games are highly interactive, it is far removed from reality as the consequences of violence are distorted because it is based on a reward system. Adequate and even ruthless violence allows you to continue to the next level, score more point, obtain more lethal weapons etc.

The adolescent years are the time when a person's value system is formed. This can only take place when the adolescent can distinguish between subjective and objective experiences; Aquarius respect and moves away from geocentricism.

Moral development empowers the child to develop and make choices. This could not be possible without considering the cognitive development of the child.

Cognitive development

Cognition refers to all the processes whereby knowledge is acquired (Plug, Meyer, Louw and Gouws, 1986:181). According to Kohlberg the child between the ages of 3-4 years develops a sex specific concept with which he/she identifies. It is during this stage that a child learns to imitate the father or mother. Children also start to learn what type of behavior is associated with a specific sex. At this stage the child does not have the ability to tell the difference between real life and fantasy.

At the age of 7 the thought patterns and learning style of children change as the child develops the capacity to reason. He/she is now also able to look at both sides of a situation and to compare situations that appear to be the same. Cognitive development has an important influence on the education of the child. During the middle years the child will learn more effectively if the learning process is accompanied by action. In other words, the child learns by doing specific activities.

One can therefor argue that the interactive nature of computer games is allowing the child to learn by doing specific activities.

Social development

The social environment of the child of school going age increases drastically due to the exposure of the values, culture and norms of other children. By learning values and attitudes that are socially acceptable will contribute to socialization. It is the moral and cognitive development that contributes to the social development of the young child. Although a discussion of the social behavior of children through to adolescence could explain the threat of violence, the consequences of violence can be accurately explained by discussing antisocial behavior.

According to Prior (1994:3) aggression is one of the forms of antisocial behavior

And is learned at a very early stage. Feshbach (1964) found that aggression can occur as early as the pre-school years. He distinguishes between adverse aggression and instrumental aggression. Adverse aggression is directed at a person. The aim of instrumental aggression is to acquire an object. Prior (1994:5) points out that if a pattern of aggressive behavior is established by mid to late primary school it is likely to remain a dominant characteristic of a child through adolescence to adulthood. The young child becomes desensitized to violence which means that others who also partake in violent behavior and aggressive reactions to conflict contributes to a general social culture in which such behavior is acceptable, normative, inevitable and scarcely remarkable. The situation is complicated further by the child's increasing independence.

In summary: One can derive from this discussion that the developmental stage of the child will play a crucial role in determining the age appropriateness of the content of a game.

Children develop from a stage where right and wrong are set rules and the realism that these moral values are determined by society to questioning these moral values. From the age of three years children start to identify with role models. The virtual reality of characters in a game, make it possible for these children to associate and imitate these characters. This is complicated further by their inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality. In the same way that violence accumulates in games, so does aggressive behavior accumulate into violent behavior.

Age appropriate violence

Rating systems often use terms that cover a wide variety and intensity of behavior. For example the ESRB refers to mild animated violence and mild realistic violence. To distinguish which one is more acceptable for a specific age would be impossible. One the one hand you might have physical violence with real life characters, but the violence is not accompanied by dramatic of graphic effects. Mild animated violence could be viewed as less serious due to the animation of the characters. The irony lies in the fact that the impact of violence is no less than when it is animated or realistic. The animated nature could in fact contribute to the desensitization of the child due to the fact that the consequences of the violence are not realistic. The ESRB's classification allows minimal violence from the age of 6 years. This could be questioned.

Game violence and parenting

Parents can reduce the effect of electronic violence by:

monitoring the games you child play.
know what types of rating systems are available.
read the content description of rating systems
do not rely only on rating systems- know the content and requirements of the game.

Conclusion

The Internet is often called a global village, suggesting a close knit community that shares common values, norms and experiences. This metaphor is misleading as many cultures coexist on the Internet- cultures that can clash at times. The purpose of this paper is not to prove the link between aggressive behavior and violent games, but one should take into account that there is public as well as individual good in reducing exposure to and acceptance of aggressive behavior.

References

About entertainment Software Rating Board. Available www: http:/esrb.org

Feshbach, S. The functions of aggression and the regulation of aggressive drive. Psychological Review, 1996; 257-272.

Gerdes, L.C. 1988. Die ontwikkelende Volwassene. Durban: Butterworths

Louw, D.A., Gerdes, L.C. & Meyer, W.F. 1985. Menslike Ontwikkeling. Pretoria: HAUM.

Online Rating Systems. Available www: http.reseau-medias.ca/eng/webaware/tipsheets/rating.htm

Plug, C., Meyer, W'F., Louw, D.A. & Gouws, L.A. 1991. Psigologiewoordeboek. Johannesburg: Lexicon.

Prior, M 1994. Stories we tell our children. Conference Melbourne, Australia, August.