Gaming for Parents 101: Breaking Down the Ratings

Now that we’ve gone over everything to get your child started gaming, I think it’s important to go over what games are appropriate for certain ages. I will preface this by saying at the end of the day you are the parent and the ultimate decision is yours to make! You know your child and you know what they can handle and what might be too much. BUT it is always good to know as much as possible when it comes to choosing games for your kids to play and to know what to look for when they’re asking about certain games they want to play.

The ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) is an independent organization much like the MPA for movies. They review a game and give it a rating based on the content of the game and how severe it is on multiple fronts including language, violence and graphic content. These break down like so:

E for Everyone - These games are appropriate for everyone to play so you should be good to go! There is a deviation every now and then which will be labeled as Everyone 10+ which may contain a little more cartoon violence or language, but nothing more than a 10 year old would be able to handle. Examples of E rated games would be most anything Nintendo published like Mario or Zelda, Astro Bot on the PlayStation or Minecraft.

T for Teen - This is given to games that have a little more violence, language and mature material in them that would be suitable for anyone 13 and up. I would suggest just doing a little more research on these to see why they were rated T before getting them for anyone under 13. A good example of great T games would be Metroid Prime, Halo Infinite or Spider-Man

M for Mature - This rating is for games that have more violence, graphic content and harsh language. There is usually a good reason these games are rated M and should be appropriate for anyone 17 and up. These would encompass games like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Cyberpunk 2077 all of which have gratuitous violence, language and possible sexual content which you may not want your child exposed to.

AO for Adults Only - These games are Quite rare to find but DEFINITELY should not be in the hands of any children. This rating is given for only the most graphic games and mostly has to do with sexual content. Keep your children away from these!

RP for Rating Pending - This is just a placeholder rating that games will place on a promotional box or ad while the game is still in development. It means that it either has not been sent to the ESRB to be rated yet OR is in the process of being rated. Sometimes they will let you know that the game will most likely be rated M with a tag like “RP Likely Mature 17+” to let you know ahead of time for games like Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed.

If you’re unsure about a game and want some more advice, please feel free to reach out to us and ask! We can usually make a good call on if your child is ready for a game or not.

And, as always, you’re not in this alone. We are here to help!

-Andrew