The Pan-European Game Information ratings logos have long been stamped upon EU game boxes to indicate the suitability of titles for certain ages. However in this new-fangled age of cyberinterwebnets, where we have the ability to play videogames against people thousands of miles away via cables jacked into the back of our skulls, there are new provisions to be made to further protect the safety of underage players as they travel between online games on their lightcycles.
To this end, PEGI Online has been rather sensibly set up to create and maintain standard levels of conduct for providers of online gaming. Aside from providing photographs of blissed-out, harmonious families on white backgrounds in numbers to rival Nintendo’s, the system’s aims are to safeguard minors during online play by requiring its participants to
… keep the website free from illegal and offensive content created by users and any undesirable links, as well as measures for the protection of young people and their privacy when engaging in online gameplay.
The PEGI Online Logo will appear on the packaging of the game if sold on a CD/DVD or on the game website itself. The Logo will show whether the game can be played online, and also whether the particular game or site is under the control of an operator that cares about protecting young people.
While it’s obviously very easy to be cynical about the effectiveness of our current regulatory bodies, we need to do all we can to prove that the games industry cares about looking after its young customers and anything like this has to be a good idea. Microsoft obviously agrees, as it’s just signed up to become the first platform operator involved in the programme. Regardless of the positive PR Microsoft is going to get from the situation, having an advocate in such a huge system as Xbox Live is exactly what PEGI Online needs if it’s going to be taken seriously and become a recognized standard. Now let’s see if Sony and Nintendo are interested…
[Thanks to Joe ‘Just Give Me My Own Tag’ Burling]
