How to Decipher Video Game Ratings


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By Zachary Harmuth

Maybe the most popular present kids want under the Christmas tree this year are video games.

But they can be violent, just too mature or use bad language.

It is hard to know, as a parent- especially those like me who stopped playing games when the most violent thing to be seen was a turtle shell flying at you- what games to pick and which to leave on the shelf.

The last thing you want is to hear from the other room on Christmas afternoon are the screams of pain or explosions of an R rated movie coming from the living room television where your young one is playing what you thought was an innocent game.

While there are too many games to count or list, there is a good editing system printed on the cover of all games that pretty closely corresponds to movie ratings.

If the game has an E on it, that means ‘Everyone’ and matches up with a G rated movie.

E 10+ means everyone older than 10 years old and matches up with a PG rating.

T stands for teen, and – as you might guess- is fairly equal to PG-13. Anyone under 13 probably should not play a game like this.

And last there is M, for mature. Games like Grand Theft Auto fall under this heading, which is like an R rated movie.

Unless you would let your child watch a movie like ‘The Hangover 3’, you would probably not want them playing a game with this rating.

Happy shopping!