Some will recall back in June the US House of Representatives Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Subcommittee came together to discuss the issue of violent video games. The topic of discussion soon went toward the rating system which a number of the politicians had a negative view of. This led to Cliff Sterns (Republican, State of Florida) to introduce the "Truth in Video Game Rating Act" (H.R. 5912). This bill, if it passed, would let the Federal Trade Commission set game ratings.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) currently rates games by viewing submitted video from publishers of the game's most offensive content. Sterns is of the belief the rating should take into account the entire game's content and that rules be in place to forbid the publisher from disclosing any information (about the game) from the rating system. His bill would also require the US General Accounting Office and the General Comptroller to research the effectiveness of the bill, and develop alternatives to the current ESRB rating system. One alternative that would be considered is a universal rating system for games, movies, music and television shows.

Fast foward to the present. Yesterday Senator Sam Brownback (Republican, Kansas) followed up with a similar bill. The exact wording of the bill has not been released yet but the concepts are very similar to what was proposed back in June.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) isn't taking this lightly, however. The ESA responded with President Douglas Lowenstein saying Sterns' bill would not succeed and that people would not be represented by average parents if ratings were handled in the proposed manner.

Personally, as a gamer I think the ESRB does a fine job as-is and the government shouldn't have to jump in. It isn't their job to keep the games out of inappropriate hands, it's the parents. Instead of fighting the ESA and ESRB why not work with them to help promote and educate people on the rating system to help them pick games suitable for their children and thereby leave the more mature titles alone for the mature gamers?