Jack Thompson: U.S. should follow UK game rating policies

With today’s games being tailored for mature tastes and yielding graphic content, controversial lawyer Jack Thompson thinks America should be just as strict and as efficient as UK in rating titles and making sure those ratings stick.

This is after the entire hubbub of Rockstar’s Manhunt 2, being refused a rating (which is tantamount to a ban) by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The following is Mr. Jack’s statement, verbatim:

The UK does it much better than the U.S., which rates a game that’s inappropriate for minors and then sells it to them. I think the U.K. has got it right. You rate a game and you can’t sell it to people if it falls in a certain category – the rating actually has a sanction, whereas in the U.S. the rating means nothing.

Jack Thompson also cited the root cause of the problem in the U.S., being that the authorities’ failure to punish or discipline those who ignore the ratings and continue to sell violent games to children. Whereas in UK, such acts mean paying up a hefty fine, or doing time behind bars.

He says that currently, there isn’t a single law in the law books that prevent a ten-year-old child from purchasing a mature-rated game, and that other countries should do well to follow UK’s system.

However, to be fair, shouldn’t the first line of defense – if one considers exposure to mature-rated games as an assault to morality – for minors be their own parents or guardians? Perhaps, with responsible parenting and proper communication between the ‘rents and the kids, this wouldn’t be an issue.

Isn’t that something to think about?

With today’s games being tailored for mature tastes and yielding graphic content, controversial lawyer Jack Thompson thinks America should be just as strict and as efficient as UK in rating titles and making sure those ratings stick.

This is after the entire hubbub of Rockstar’s Manhunt 2, being refused a rating (which is tantamount to a ban) by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The following is Mr. Jack’s statement, verbatim:

The UK does it much better than the U.S., which rates a game that’s inappropriate for minors and then sells it to them. I think the U.K. has got it right. You rate a game and you can’t sell it to people if it falls in a certain category – the rating actually has a sanction, whereas in the U.S. the rating means nothing.

Jack Thompson also cited the root cause of the problem in the U.S., being that the authorities’ failure to punish or discipline those who ignore the ratings and continue to sell violent games to children. Whereas in UK, such acts mean paying up a hefty fine, or doing time behind bars.

He says that currently, there isn’t a single law in the law books that prevent a ten-year-old child from purchasing a mature-rated game, and that other countries should do well to follow UK’s system.

However, to be fair, shouldn’t the first line of defense – if one considers exposure to mature-rated games as an assault to morality – for minors be their own parents or guardians? Perhaps, with responsible parenting and proper communication between the ‘rents and the kids, this wouldn’t be an issue.

Isn’t that something to think about?