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Sports, music games exempt from ratings in latest UK bill

By Alex Sassoon Coby, GameSpot UKPosted Nov 23, 2009 11:50 am PT

Draft of Digital Economy measure proposes exceptions for games situated in athletics, rhythm, religion genres.

The British government outlined its plans for the future of the Digital Economy in June. As part of those proceedings, the government made it clear that the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) system would become legally enforceable in the UK. Last week, the British Parliament published the latest draft of the bill, offering more details on how it plans to handle ratings exemptions.

The next Guitar Hero might be rated N/A.

As had been suggested, all titles that are aimed at younger children will be exempt from statutory classification. Specifically, anything aimed exclusively at those under 12 will not require legal classification, as long as it does not contain "depictions of violence towards human or animal characters," "depictions of violence towards other characters where the violence looks realistic," swearing, encouragement to criminal activity, "words or images that are likely, to any extent, to stimulate or encourage the use of alcohol or tobacco," or anything that might cause offence on grounds of religion, race, sexual orientation, or similar.

All education titles are also exempt, as long as they are taken as a whole "designed to inform, educate or instruct."

A third exemption category has also been outlined in the bill that covers sports, music, and religion-based games. The exemption has previously been applied to other forms of video works through the Video Recordings Act (1984), but it has yet to be applied to video games. For instance, the BBFC has previously given installments in Activision's Guitar Hero series a 12 rating, meaning that under the previous system it was illegal for the games to be sold to anyone under that age even though they were apparrently exempt from rating.

The exemptions for sport and music games are forfeited if the games in question feature "human sexual activity or acts of force or restraint associated with such activity," serious violence against humans or animals, or depictions of "human genital organs or human urinary or excretory function."

UPDATE: When contacted by GameSpot the Video Standards Council--who will be legally responsible for enforcement of ratings in the UK when the new rules come into force--explained that if exempt games were to be submitted for PEGI classification, then those ratings would still carry legal weight.

49 Comments

  • Hitman2500

    Posted Nov 28, 2009 1:53 pm PT

    wierd

  • nineteen93

    Posted Nov 25, 2009 4:23 pm PT

    I will be eagerly waiting for the next Guitar Hero,FIFA which will feature depictions of: "human genital organs or human urinary or excretory function."

  • azureblade89

    Posted Nov 25, 2009 12:45 pm PT

    So..does that mean they're gonna start adding the real lyrics to songs now? Just something wrong with Down With The Sickness without the swearing.

  • sdcazares1980

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 9:18 pm PT

    In other words, they won't know what the heck to enforce...

  • mariostar0001

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 6:00 pm PT

    For those who say who cares, I do. And I know many people who do. It's just that few of them come here, they just ask me for game advice or use the official scholastic code book. Personally, I cannot think of anything to say on this topic. Just on ratings in general.

  • Kevu

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 2:35 pm PT

    Maybe when the UK pins down a system it can help out poor Australia. Lord knows they need help getting a mature game w/o being censored or imported.

  • WeWerePirates

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 9:54 am PT

    XanderKage
    "Posted Nov 24, 2009 2:11 pm GMT
    I thouht that's what E rating was for? Now they want to just drop it? Lazy much?"

    You've kind of missed the point. First E is an ESRB rating which applies only to North America. Currently the UK uses a system of PEGI and BBFC. PEGI is the industry self regulation rating, which is not enforceable, the nearest thing to an E is 3+. BBFC have U (universal) and PG rating but a game only needs to be classified by the BBFC it is likely to require a 15 rating. The BBFC rating is enforceable. The UK exempt E isn't a real rating and there is no requirement to carry it.

    Currently there is a change over going on to simplify the system to drop the BBFC ratings and make the PEGI rating enforceable. It seems in the process this sort of stuff is getting a tidy up too. These three categories should already be ratings exempt under the Video Recordings Act.

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 6:54 am PT

    Hybridos

    "human genital organs or human urinary or excretory function."

    lost and damned, mgs4

  • FreshTillDeath

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 6:15 am PT

    Does anyone really care about game ratings? I;m 16 and half of my collection is rated 18.

  • XanderKage

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 6:11 am PT

    I thouht that's what E rating was for? Now they want to just drop it? Lazy much?

  • rangeraa

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 6:09 am PT

    "or anything that might cause offence on grounds of religion, race, sexual orientation, or similar. "

    Umm...People will find reasons to be offended by ANY game! Don't forget all those people that think that rock and roll is the devils music(they are out there my friends mom is one of them!)

  • PixelAddict

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 5:23 am PT

    Ratings and their decisions are so arbitrary... so why on Madden is a vicious hit that will injure the opposing player and knock him out of the game not applicable. Seems like violence to me.

    Keep in mind I am only playing devil's advocate. My latest favorite game is the Origins: Wolverine game from awhile back. Bloodiest (and funnest) game I have played in awhile. Pure fun.

  • Excedra

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 1:33 am PT

    never cared

  • ColonelX24

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 1:14 am PT

    My guess is they took education out of the classification so that they'd stop getting rated "boring".

  • punkpunker

    Posted Nov 24, 2009 12:44 am PT

    umm... doesnt N/A is normally for banned games since is not rated?

  • razgriz_101

    Posted Nov 23, 2009 11:53 pm PT

    a lot of music DVD's i own the NFG and the Franz Ferdinand ones for example are rated E for exempt in the UK.So in a way its just making music games more integrated into the way things are done when it comes to musical media.

    If its got questionalbe whats wrong with a parental advisory stickers like the CD carry?

  • left4right

    Posted Nov 23, 2009 10:49 pm PT

    waht was that news again ?

  • Bevmo

    Posted Nov 23, 2009 10:13 pm PT

    usa! lol

  • Megamanx266

    Posted Nov 23, 2009 7:54 pm PT

    Wow... now if only the ESRB did that. Oh wait it'll never do that!

    Kindof funny how Music games are included... seeing as how there are quite a number of songs with... interesting lyrics.

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