Tanya Byron recommends game ratings overhaul in Britain

Dr. Tanya Byron, a clinical psychologist, who is heading an independent review into the ill effects of games and internet on kids, published a report on Thursday (March 27, 2008). In the report titled “Safer Children in a Digital World” she has made several recommendations regarding children’s safety in cyberspace and ways to keep them away from adult content.

She has recommended greater cohesion between the UK government, game industry and parents, and also prescribed a greater role for the British Board of Film Classification in assigning ratings to the game. She wants BBFC to assign rating to all games 12 and above.

In the current rating system in place in the UK, Uc, U, PG, 12, 15 and 18 are the ratings that are assigned by the BBFC. Uc stands for Universal Children and implies that the game is appropriate for everyone, especially for very young kids. U stands for Universal that the game is appropriate for all but some parts of the game might not be fit for kids under age three. The PG rating implies that the game is appropriate for all ages but parental guidance might be needed for ages 7 and below. Games rated 12 are only fit for people 12 and above, and gamers below that age are not allowed access to that game. The same rule applies for games rated 15 and 18, and these games are only appropriate for people of the specified age or above.

One of her salient recommendations is rating system reforms. She wants the games to feature the same set of rating symbols as films as this will be easier for parents to fathom. Byron has called for lucid and easy to understand guidelines for publishers regarding the right ways of advertising their games. She has also advocated cooperation between BBFC and the European rating body Pan Europe Game Information (PEGI).

Her recommendations are not only confined to regulation and ratings. She has also recommended several social and governmental initiatives for securing the safety of kids on the internet, and from inappropriate game content. She recommends the setting up of a UK Council for Child Internet Safety “established by and reporting to the Prime Minister, and including representation from across Government, industry, children’s charities and other key stakeholders including children, young people and parent panels.”

The Byron review can be lauded for the fact that it doesn’t call for suffocating game regulations, which suppress free speech and strangle creativity in video games. Byron wants to involve all the entities including government, industry, parents and gamers in the video game regulation process, so as to have a balanced perspective. I believe this is what the doctor ordered, pun intended.

Read [Next-Gen]