Retailer wants parents to watch game ratings

THE NEXT LEVEL

Parents should pay attention to video game ratings, says a vice president of a major video game retail chain.

Jason Cochran is vice president of stores for the western half of the United States for GameStop. Cochran is responsible for about 1,000 GameStop stores. He says his stores won’t sell a mature-rated game to anyone under 17, but he wants all parents to be aware of what the ratings on video games mean. Games are rated by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Cochran said lots of information about game ratings can be found at www.respecttheratings.com.

The six primary ratings for games:

Early childhood, intended for those 3 and older, EC

Everyone, intended for those 6 and older, E

Everyone 10, for those 10 years and older, E10+

Teen, intended for those age 13 and up, T

Mature, intended for those 17 and older, M

Adults only, for those 18 and up, AO

There’s also a “RP,” for rating pending, which is occasionally seen in advertising before a game’s rating has been assigned. Each game also will have content descriptors, which describe what type of content is present in the game. Cochran said parents can find the rating on the front, side and back of each video game.

Cochran said while mature-rated games such as “Grand Theft Auto” draw attention and do sell well, they aren’t the majority of what’s available to gamers.