Is ESRB really needed?

[kenzomatic]

Griffin said:
I think the ESRB is needed. Some parents like to know what comes into their house and having this wonderful system helps out many family's in deciding what content to allow their children to play.

Crabmaster2000 said:
It is desperately needed. If the Video Game industry didnt regulate itself then the government would step in. For you 15 year olds that like your M rated games that would mean the cashier would be IDing you and suffer fines for selling to minors so it would happen far less. It would be like buying tobacco or pornography.

ssj12 said:
The ESRB is greatly needed but it needs to be more refined. The need more ratings for kids between 6 - 10 and 13 - 16. The T rating is pointless and tells jake.

Borkachev said:
I don't think a lot of you realize what it is the ESRB does. They don't control or censor the content of games like a parent does, they just assign a rating. In other words, they're there to help the parents do their job. While it would obviously be best if every parent kept abreast of the details of every game that comes out, it's obviously not practical for all of them to do that. The ESRB rating is just an easy way to give them an idea of what's in a game.

The problems start when governments come along and try to edge their way into the business of the ratings boards.

royalcaribcruiser123 said:
I believe that the ESRB Is need because it is a self regulatory body. If we did not have the ESRB it would be some other rating board that would probably be controlled by the government. I can't imagine how much the videogaming in general would suffer if it was left up to the US government to decide.

They all pretty much said it.

The only reason anyone would want it gone is because of missplaced blame (bad parenting, Government control/regulations, game not rated proberly {needs reform not removal},etc.)