Most of the UK backs Europe-wide rating system.
Britain is currently pushing for a new system of video game rating to be implemented across Europe. Current Minister of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Margaret Hodge, issued a written response to a meeting of the Education, Youth and Culture Council.
In the letter, Hodge expresses her support for the new rating system, stating, "The Commission summarised their communication on video games and pushed member states to implement the voluntary Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system for age rating of video games."
As SPOnG.com reports, the ELSPA, Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, recently sponsored a survey that showed 67 percent of adults in the UK "believe it is important to have a single age-ratings system which would be consistent across Europe." The figures were gathered via the YouGov online portal, in which approximately 1,900 adults participated between June 5-9.
Former TV star, now an MEP (Member of the Europoean Parliament) Michael Cashman, also a senior member of the European Parliament’s Justice, Home Affairs and Civil Liberties Committee, did not appear at all surprised by the survey results:
"I am not surprised that most Brits believe it is vital that we are signed-up to a pan-European rating system. Many buy their games when they are away, and others download content from European games companies. These are trends which will inevitably continue. PEGI and PEGI Online offer security when UK residents buy games from the continent – and when visiting Europeans buy games from us during their visits."
Doesn't seem like a terribly bad idea, but there's no news on how the UK's neighbors are responding. At the very least, PEGI appears to be an active response to all the concern over video games influencing the impressionable. Since there is no fair way of rating a person's intellect and how deserving they are of a particular game, a universal rating system may be the next best thing for Europe.
For more information on how PEGI works, the website is very enlightening. It allows you to search for current video games and provides explanations for how the ratings work.
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Aside from my humor, I don't think certain age groups should play certain games. For example, a mature person can play games like Half-Life or GTA 4, and know the difference between right, wrong, and the difference between what is morally acceptable in the real world (i.e. not going around killing people), but what about all of those impressionable children at the age of 6 who are still learning about the difference between right and wrong? That's really the reason why I think rating systems, and especially uniformed ones, should exist; they should exist for the sole reason of protecting the... immature.
Yes, I do sound very domineering at the moment, but you know what said does have some truth in it...