Video Game Censorship

Inappropriate Material in Video Games

Sex, violence, explicit language, blood, drugs, and much more are found in video games today. There are people that consider these subjects to be extremely inappropriate, while other people find nothing wrong with them. People do not think twice when they read about sex and violence crimes in newspapers, or when they kill innocent bystanders and policemen in Grand Theft Auto 3. Most people do not feel one way or another about allegedly inappropriate material like this because it has become a part of life since the 1990’s. Those few who choose to act upon their dislike of this material try to censor it. Although people have a right to decide for themselves what is and is not appropriate, censoring material to subjects like these would be unfair to those people who enjoy it. There are people in life that after playing Grand Theft Auto 3 for example, would not go and rob a bank or kill innocent people. Then again, there are people that would do this and it is typically shown that minors would do such a thing. There is a way to prohibit such violent games from minors. The Entertainment Software Rating Board, which is known as ESRB, was made for parents and other consumers to choose the games that are for their children. Even though this system was made, minors could easily go and get their desired rated Mature or Adult game. Politicians and other pressure groups are now trying to either prohibit sell of these games to minors and video game developers have started censoring games they make that they deem worthy of censoring. Material in video games considered “inappropriate” by the ESRB, politicians, pressure groups, and more should be censored for minors and adults.

The ESRB system tells parents what game is suitable for their child. It does not determine if the person wants to buy or rent the game. The ESRB says “ESRB ratings have two parts: rating symbols suggest age appropriateness for the game, and...