Professor Believes a New Video Game Rating System Could Help Parents and Kids
Professor Believes a New Video Game Rating System Could Help Parents and Kids
Professor Believes a New Video Game Rating System Could Help Parents and Kids
By Whitelaw Reid
May 26, 2021
Summary
As the father of four children, two of whom are gamers, University of Virginia psychology professor Daniel Willingham recently found himself wondering about the educational value of video games.
Willingham was struck by the fact there is a rating system to help parents keep their kids away from content that isn't age-appropriate, but nothing to lead them toward games that could actually teach something.
It was with that in mind that Willingham wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in which he advocated for the implantation of an educational rating system for video games.
Q. As video games are presented now, what makes them so difficult to determine whether a game has any educational value or not?
I think there are times where you may actually learn some things from a video game that you wouldn't expect to learn anything from.
Q. In your op-ed, you wrote that it should be as easy for parents to guide their kids toward enriching games as it is to shield them from unacceptable ones.
The mechanism is that the game creator writes up a fairly detailed description of the game - specifically outlining what the possible objectionable content is.
There are three independent raters who are professionals and they rate the game independently and then finalize both an age recommendation and a detailed listing of the objectionable content.
The thing that was most impressive to me was that, about 10 years after the system was created, the Federal Trade Commission said, "It's really working well." And most gaming systems, stand-alone consoles and also phones, have parental controls where this rating system is integrated.
Q. A lot of kids like to watch videos of other people playing video games.
Reference
Reid, W. (2021, May 26). Professor believes a new video game rating system could help parents and kids. UVA Today. https://news.virginia.edu/content/professor-believes-new-video-game-rating-system-could-help-parents-and-kids