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How to Understand Ratings and Parental Guidelines for Video Games

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Are you a parent who's been buying your children games that are not appropriate for their age? Although the box tells you, there are certain guidelines that set by a safety board that tells you about these ratings. You'll find how to determine the ratings for certain games that don't have these ratings posted on their box, in this article.


  1. 1
    Understand that the EC rating is appropriate for all. EC stands for Early Childhood. It contains no inappropriate material for any age. It's most suitable for ages 3 and older.
  2. 2
    Understand what the E rating is useful for. The E rating, where the E rating stands for Everyone, is intended for all ages. It has some cartoon or fantasy violence and it might also include some very mild language.
  3. 3
    Understand what the E10+ ratings is useful for. As the name implies, it's useful for kids 10 and up. Slightly more violence may be present, as well as heavier language and some more suggestive themes (while still being a youngster's game (10+).
  4. 4
    Understand what the T rating is useful for. T stands for Teen, and it generally includes the group starting at 13 and up. Some violence may be present, as well as some blood scenes, some humor, suggestive themes, and some language not deemed appropriate for young one's ears. It may even have scenes of gambling.
  5. 5
    Understand what the M rating is useful for. M stands for Mature, and it's generally useful for groups of people starting at 17 and older. It has intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
  6. 6
    Understand what the AO rating is useful for. AO stands for Adults Only, and is only useful for people ages 18 and older. It may contain many prolonged scenes of very-intense scenes of violence, and/or a lot of sexually-graphic content/nudity.
  7. 7
    Understand that the RP rating is only placed on the box (or advertisement article) when the game is awaiting a rating by the board. This rating will generally come off, the day of the release, but they would like to let everyone know that it hadn't been rated yet, and the advertisement scenes in magazines may be inappropriate for some.
  8. 8
    Read the content descriptors on the source site below. These may be present somewhere on the box, and describe the exact problems the game has. SOME descriptors include (not all descriptors are included in each game, and this small list aren't the only things in the list) blood and gore, nudity, partial nudity, mature humor, strong language, etc.

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  • Every game with a form of online play has a statement saying "Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB." This means that the game has content accessible online that has never been seen by the ESRB. Generally, this doesn't make a difference in any game published by Nintendo, but other games with looser user-generated content restrictions may have inappropriate material.

Things You'll Need

  • Internet access
  • a variety of different games with different game ratings
  • adult to sample each of these games

Article Info

Categories: Video Games

In other languages:

Español: entender el sistema de clasificación y guía parental de los videojuegos

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