ESRB; Helpful or Hurtful?

By

Chris Waller

CP English 11

Block 1

Mr. Ferguson

April 5, 2006
1) The ESRB rating system is far too excessive and needs to be
altered.

A. US citizens have the right to freedom of expression.

B. Video games have positive effects on the people of America.

C. Parental negligence is the reason the ESRB currently exists

today.

2) US citizens have the right to freedom of expression.

A. American liberties and the Bill of Rights.

B. Secure protection by the Declaration of Independence.

3) Video games have positive effects on the people of America.

A. The artistic outlook of games.

B. Professional statements about the positive capabilities and

results of Video games.

4) Parental negligence is the major reason ESRB currently exists

today.

A. The amount of involvement a parental figure places in

buying their children video games.

B. Backgrounds of the people who have acted out based on

video games.

5) Conclusion

A. US citizens have the right to freedom of expression.

B. Video games have positive effects on the people of America.

C. Parental negligence is the major reason the ESRB exists

today.
 The first video game was created in 1958 by a man named William Higginbotham

in Upton, New York while working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. This game

was called Tennis for Two and would later be called Pong. An interesting fact about

William Higginbotham is he also helped create the world’s first Atomic Bomb in the

Manhattan Project. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board or ESRB Company was

established in 1994, which is a program that makes the censorship of video games

mandatory. ESRB was first established when a game called “Mortal Kombat” caused

parents to create controversy due to the graphic content. Ironically there were more

graphic games on the market but parents felt they should attack the best selling games.

The ESRB rating system is far too excessive, and needs to be altered. US citizens have

the right to freedom of expression. Video games have positive effects on the people of

America. Parental negligence is the major reason the ESRB exists today.

United States citizens have the right to freedom of expression as stated in the first

amendment of the Bill of Rights. “The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their

right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as

one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.” (James Madison.) (This was the

first amendment and also the most important.) What this means is the freedom to be open

in one’s own form of expression. In April, 2003 a St. Louis county court case attempted

to limit the ability to buy video games that allegedly are explicit in content and took this

to court against the video game company, Interactive Digital Software Association. The

8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said:

"If the First Amendment is versatile enough to 'shield [the] painting of Jackson
Pollock, music of Arnold Schoenberg, or Jabberwocky verse of Lewis Carroll,' we
see no reason why the pictures, graphic design, concept art, sounds, music,
stories, and narrative present in video games are not entitled to a similar
 protection…[W]e do not mean to denigrate the government’s role in 
supporting parents, or the right of parents to control their children’s exposure
to graphically violent materials. We merely hold that the government cannot
silence protected speech by wrapping itself in the cloak of parental authority... To
accept the County’s broadly-drawn interest as a compelling one would be to invite
legislatures to undermine the first amendment rights of minors willy-nilly under
the guise of promoting parental authority."

This statement not only shows that the government is trying to violate the first

amendment by means of veiling their intentions through angered parents. It also shows

that the court believes this to be art. Following this case the St Louis attempt to pass a

law that would make video games far more difficult for minors to attain this was also

known as “The Violent Video Game Law.” In the past 5 years there have been 6 major

court cases against video game companies and their right to market their product’s. All of

which the First Amendment has protected the video game industries right of expression.

“The video-game industry voluntarily set up a rating system to guide parents and
young consumers. Vendors are supposed to require proof of age before selling M-
rated games to anyone under 17. Some of the largest retailers don’t even carry
adult-only games. And, according to an industry survey, the average age of a
video-game player is 30 and the average age of a buyer is 36. When the buyer is a
minor, parents are involved in the purchase 83% of the time.” (Paul K.
McMasters)

This shows not only are the majority of people buying these games well over the

minimum age limit. It also shows that the ones under the age limit are having their

parents willingly buy them the games. If there were harsher ESRB ratings or complete

removal of the video games as seen in the St Louis v. Interactive Digital Software

Association trial minors would still be very capable of receiving these games. The way

the First Amendment should work is allowing anyone of any age to view arts, opinions
and expressions. However, the people of America base their beliefs on the limitations of

their moral values.

Video games have positive effects on the people of America. Often times one can

hear narrow-minded opinions that have no proof about video games, such as video games

cause aggressive behavior in children. This aggressive behavior is based on an individual

person, normally someone suffering from mental illness. The MIT Director of

Comparative Media Studies, Henry Jenkins, brings up a good point when he tells the

Electronics Monthly interviewer, “How many violent criminals cite the Bible in their

criminal action? Should we ban the Bible?” In fact it’s quiet the opposite people can

gain several skills from playing video games. Many books have been written regarding

this subject; even the people who claim that video games are in some form evil don’t

protest the positive aspects of game play.

“Video games are not completely evil, however. Many skills can be learned by

playing them. Some such skills include problem-solving abilities, perseverance, pattern

recognition, hypothesis testing, estimating skills, inductive skills, resource management,

logistics, mapping, memory, quick thinking, and reasoned judgments…”(Sheff 33).

This statement shows one of the most avid anti-video game supporters stating twelve

positives against his argument. All of what Mr. Sheff listed are key parts of human

development. These skills aren’t in the curriculum of schools. Video games also develop

hand-eye coordination, more so than most activities can provide. They can help train

American soldiers through games like Socom, which can teach people military code, and

prepare for combat by means of simulation. This can save the government millions of
dollars, prior to video games as a training program it cost the government 25 million

dollars per soldier for training. "Instead of paying $25 million for a training simulation

bubble dome that one person can use once a month, you will have a PlayStation or Xbox

or laptop that can do everything those machines do and be networkable…" (Peter Tamte,

CEO of Destineer) However, one of the most important aspects of games is the ability

they have at an educational level. Games like the Oregon Trail that are used in some

schools are obviously educational. But, some games are educational without announcing

it. Certain games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater provide information on physics by

introducing the height and time to land while skateboarding. They also introduce

geometry by means of angle measures the greater the angle, the greater one can score.

Diablo II, one of the more protested games, at first seems graphic and somewhat sinister,

but as one plays through one can learn a lot. It introduces Latin to describe specific items

in the game. “Video games allow a means by which to establish hierarchies of skill and

ability, and ultimately leadership just like in other areas of life.”(Tapscott 162) In this

quote he is referring to online games, Diablo II is one of them; it also introduces a rich

vocabulary that helps one develop ones grammar and typing skills. Diablo II is a game

with online capabilities; some people protest this saying it could be harmful to

impressionable and naive children. The truth is that these people who protest online

game play don’t realize that it puts one in social situations to interact with others and

attain friendships. So, in a sense these people are trying to hide their children from

society. One of these people who attempt to shun children from the world is Jack

Thompson, an overzealous lawyer from Florida. He often times tries to force people to

change, almost like a dictator, and insults those who don’t agree with him. “If Henry
doesn’t think education has an effect on anyone who should stop being a professor. You

can modify behavior.”(Jack Thompson) When he references Henry, he is referring to the

Director of Comparative Media Studies at MIT and author of 12 books, Henry Jenkins.

He has helped overturn federal court legislation against video games. Jack Thompson’s

biggest case involves a hack of the computer and console game “Grand Theft Auto: San

Andres”. The hack was called “Hot Coffee” and the developers removed it almost

completely, but some information leaked out amongst the company and was spread on the

Internet. It was an interactive sex scene, the only one in the game. However, even Grand

Theft Auto has a positive side. It is an accurate depiction of crime and even physics.

Often time’s people play video games to alleviate frustration. This is one of the games

that work well at accomplishing that goal. It is better to see someone relieve stress and

tension on a video game instead of going outside and taking their problems out on people

that had nothing to do with their stress to begin with. The people who do commit crimes

involving video games are almost always mentally unstable in one form or another.

Henry Jenkins has researched with several professionals to seek the answer of what

causes this aggression. “The surgeon general found games were not an essential factor in

school shootings. Criminologists say the same thing. The contributing factors are mental

illness, kids going off mood-altering meds, domestic violence, broken families,

poverty…”(Henry Jenkins) Experts claim that video games have nothing to do with

violence. This would then raise the question “So what is so bad about video games?”

The answer to that would be the few incidents that violence did occur the smallest factors

were blown out of proportion. What they failed to mention were the other parts of the

people’s lives, and overzealous lawyers press lawsuits against the wrong people. Instead
of blaming the games, which are bought by the parents over 85% of the time, blame the

people who were in the person’s environment, doctors, parents, and school kids. Video

games positive effects greatly outweigh the small possibility of a negative occurrence.

Parental negligence is the major reason ESRB exists today. Most parents do not

look at the ratings when buying or renting their child a game. A majority of Wal-Mart,

Electronics Boutique, and Game Stop employees say that parents often wait at the

counter for their children to pick a game. Official data taken by gaming companies show

that only one-percent of parental figures check the video game ratings prior to buying the

game. (Media Awareness Network) The right thing to do would be to discriminate

between people based on their past and experiences and those with a clean slate.

Anytime one hears about something happening due to being influenced by a video game,

it almost always has to actually do with that person’s past. One example is the massacre

at Columbine High school the family of the victims immediately pressed a lawsuit

against the makers of the video games that the shooters played. “Companies named in

the lawsuit include Nintendo of America, Sega of America, Sony Computer

Entertainment and Time Warner Inc., which is now AOL Time Warner, and ID Software

Inc. and GT Interactive Software Corp., creators and publishers of the game

Doom.”(Associated Press) A sufficient analogy would be to say; just because someone

plays Tetris (a game in which you lay block on each other in a specific order) does not

mean they will begin to lay bricks down in their gardens. There is some belief that

playing a video game will lead a person to antisocial behavior and possibly mental

instability however, Professor Jenkins disagrees.

 “…Young people in general are more likely to be gamers --- 90 percent of boys and
40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT
commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General’s report, the
strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the
quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic of violent video games
is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to
many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away
from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to
continue to fester.”(Jenkins, #1)

Jenkins implies here that video games are a very positive and contributing part of modern

society. The truth of the matter is things were steadily getting worse before video games,

became popular. Young people were committing more and more crimes. According to

the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics, since the release of video

games crime rates have dropped greatly. However, the most odd fact about this was that

in 2004 violence in America hit an all time low and that was also when one of the most

violent video games of today was released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which also

happened to be the best-selling game of that year.

American tax dollars go to paying the employees of the Entertainment Software

Ratings Board for doing a job that less than 1% of the population pays attention to. For

all the crime committed in

the United States video

game influenced crime is

almost an insignificant

motive for such an act. In

this graph, created by Net

Revolution Inc. using

statistics from the FBI, it is

very clear that during the era when people started playing more video games; violence

has dropped by a staggering 50%. People don’t pay attention to ratings and instead allow

the children to pick out their own games, and yet the crime rate continues to drop. This

raises the question “So why do we even have an ESRB?” The answer is overzealous

lawyers like Jack Thompson and angry parents who assume that because something is

violent, their children will copy it. The irony of this is, the parents that are protesting

should trust in their children’s judgment. The only time a parent should be concerned

about their child’s judgment is if the child is mentally unable to make decisions alone.

Even then, a positive aspect of video games is that it improves decision-making skills.

Today’s youth is among the most non-violent of the last 40 years, because most own a

game console. Video games are a positive part of life, and if parents weren’t so

negligent, there would be no reason for the ESRB to exist therefore it needs to be much

less critical then it currently is.

The ESRB should be altered because it is too strict when giving video games

ratings. The federal government needs to respect the principles that this country was built

on and allow the video game industry their freedom of expression without limitations.

The United States will not remove the ESRB rating system and the result will be that

many games will never be created or released. Games that could serve in a child’s

education or training American soldiers, possibly saving lives. Fantastic games that are

created will not be playable to some people due to the stores such as Wal-Mart, that do

not sell AO and RP games, and the M rated games are only sold to adults. This will also

cause a crime increase in America due to lack of proper video games to play. If this were
to ever change it would be in federal jurisdiction to do so because the ESRB is a federally

funded program.
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