Bill to provide more objectivity, accuracy to ratings

Contact: Brian Hart, Becky Ogilvie, both for Sam Brownback, United States Senator - Kansas, 202-224-6521

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today reintroduced the Truth in Video Game Rating Act which would require a video game rating organization to review the entire playable content of a game before assigning a content rating.

"Video game reviewers should be required to review the entire content of a game to ensure the accuracy of the rating," said Brownback.  "The current video game ratings system is not as accurate as it could be because reviewers do not see the full content of games and do not even play the games they rate."

Currently game reviewers do not play the games prior to determining ratings.  Their reviews are based on taped segments of the game submitted by the game's producer to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.  Such taped segments may or may not fully represent the game's content.  The bill would prohibit video game producers and distributors from withholding or hiding playable content from a ratings organization.

Brownback continued, "Game reviewers must have access to the entire game for their ratings to accurately reflect a game's content."

In addition to the new FTC rules, the bill commissions a Government Accountability Office study to determine the efficacy of the industry's ESRB ratings system and the potential for an independent rating system that would be controlled by parties with no financial interest in the industry.  The GAO study would also review the potential advantages of a universal ratings system for television, movies, and video games.

Senator Brownback is a member of the Appropriations Committee and the Judiciary Committee.