...you have to disclose everything on a disc regardless of whether or not it's playable, but [you do] if it's pertinent, which certainly was the case with the Hot Coffee scenes. If you plan on leaving it on the disc, you have to disclose it, because the hackers are sophisticated and the hackers will find it. The situation with Hot Coffee, it wasn't the [hacker's] modification that caused us to change the rating, it was the fact that this content existed on the disc and it was made accessible through modification, and was not disclosed.
Do you expect game developers to be responsible about this new rule?
They obey. They obey all of our rules. They keep track of all their assets. They know what's been developed for their games. If it's pertinent and they haven't submitted it to us and they intend to leave it on the disc, they need to submit it to us, and they know that. We don't have problems with publishers following our rules. We're here for them, you know. We're their self-regulatory body. They're the ones who put us here and we're here to help them as much as they help us.
Do you think that because of the rating system, parents should feel safe letting their children play video games without supervision?
We never recommend that parents let their kids play video games without supervision. We like parents to monitor what their kids are playing. I think the rating system is accurate and is consistent with mainstream American taste and values. Research proves that out.
The rating system is certainly the one tool that parents have consistently on the package and in all advertising that provides them with basic information about what's in the game. The one area that parents particularly need to monitor is what their kids are doing online. Whether it's who they're playing their games with online, or when they're in the online peer-to-peer matching environments that they can play in. I think that as the Hot Coffee controversy showed, parents need to be vigilant, particularly about PC games and their kids going out and downloading modifications to those PC games that might fairly significantly change the content they thought their children were being exposed to. It's more about how their kids are using games and less about what's actually on the box. The material on the box is accurate and complete and they should certainly be able to trust that.
Do you let your own children play video games without supervision?
I do have a sense of what they play; I do supervise them, although of course you can't supervise them all the time. But I also trust my kids. They're exposed to lots of different types of content, whether it's on television or in books, in magazines, on the Internet, in school, on the playground and at their friends' houses, that I can't control and I think the role that I have as a parent is to teach them right from wrong. They're not going to learn that from anything they're exposed to on television, on film or on their computer. They're going to learn that from me.
Talkback
Well, let me see if got it. If the game ONLY showed police officers being killed, it would not be imoral. Since it also shows sex scenes than it showld never been done. To me it's quite weird such measure of morality. That's maybe because I'm brazilian so can't realize the real meaning of morality in an american society, where a game that shows scenes of human life being taken is less offensive than showing sex scenes.
Weird, very weird.
The rating was probably increased because it now contains sex AND violence as opposed to just violence. But, in my opinion, the violence of itself should have led to an 18+ (adult) rating anyway.
I imagine there are many people that think sex should be without ANY kind of moral imperatives. (They should probably think more with their brains, and not with other organs!)
George: No-one has said the game would not be considered immoral if it contained ONLY police officers being shot. Where did you get this from apart from your prejudice?
It was already given a "mature" rating for that very reason and was always considered to be immoral by many from the outset. The reaction against the "Hot Coffee" scenes was because it appeared that the games company had tried to sneak such scenes past the censors and into the hands of minors.
I see too often a desire to just "bash" Americans and paint them as "simple prudes" which I think is affecting people's ability to think through issues such as this logically.
Sex isn't always innocent; the context is important. In this context, the sex was placed in the vicinity of violence which in some people's eyes doesn't go too well together. There IS a moral dimension to sex which many "liberal-minded" people would like to convince you doesn't exist...