The ESRB and the PTA -- or the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and the Parent Teacher Association, for the acronym-challenged -- have published a new guide for parents about the digital bogeyman that is video games. The 19-page document is available online, and will soon be distributed to 26,000 PTAs nationwide.
The guide is a valuable tool for parents, taking not an alarmist approach, but stressing once again the value behind things like built-in parental controls and, that old favorite, taking an actual interest in what your child is doing. The guide actually walks parents through the process for current consoles, including valuable tips like "Parents should be around when the console is first set up so that their children don't activate parental control settings of their own choosing and secure them with a password or PIN that only they know." Those little scamps. The guide even includes a nice and straightforward article by Andrew "GamerDad" Bub, explaining in simple terms the risks of playing online with screaming potty-mouths.
Most refreshing of all, though, is the final section in the guide, which consists of a how-to on family discussions, delineating the questions that parents ought to be asking their kids about their gaming habits. The discussion focuses not only on things like household gaming rules and online safety, but questions like "Why are these titles [on a list filled out by your kids] your child's favorites? What about them is especially fun, interesting or challenging?" Again, an emphasis on paying a little attention to your kids rather than simply automating the process.
This is a fantastic effort, and is exactly what the industry needs--a collaborative effort between an organization that knows and works with kids, and one that knows and works with games. We can expect this guide to be a very helpful tool to every parent that pays attention at PTA meetings, takes the time to read literature about child safety, and may know anything about a home console and/or has read the documentation in the first place. To both of those parents, we wish you godspeed.
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