PlayStation Gives Parents Ratings Guidance on the Go

ESRB ratings are familiar to all gamers and most parents, as well. However, despite high awareness and use of the ESRB ratings, it’s still critically important that we as an industry sustain our efforts to educate parents about the rating system and the tools we provide that help them manage the games their children play.

To that end, SCEA is doing its part with the ESRB Video Game Ratings Guide that comes pre-loaded right on the new PSPgo device itself. I got a peek at the Guide as it was being developed and it was great to see its straight-forward and thorough overview of the ESRB rating system as well as a step-by-step walkthrough of the device’s parental control features and settings. Definitions of the ESRB age rating categories and content descriptors give parents a good understanding of how the ratings work, examples of titles that carry each of the ratings provide a useful point of reference, and the tutorial on setting up parental controls makes putting those ratings to work on the system a quick and easy process.

It’s a great tool that I highly recommend parents check out to familiarize themselves with ESRB ratings so they are well-prepared to manage the games their kids play on their new PSPgo.