Virtually every video game for sale or rental in the U.S. carries an ESRB rating. An age rating category on the front of the package recommends what age the game is best suited for, and content descriptors on the back indicate the type of content that may have triggered the rating assigned or may be of interest or concern to you. Using the ESRB ratings is a great first step in making informed choices, but the ratings are only that…a first step. 

Rating summaries are matter-of-fact descriptions of the context and relevant content that factored into a game’s rating, with an emphasis on elaborating on the content descriptors. ESRB created a new mobile website at m.esrb.org so that parents can look up rating summaries right from the video game store, where the decision about whether or not to buy a game is most likely to be made. Parents can also find rating summaries before they go shopping by searching for game titles on ESRB’s website at www.esrb.org, by using ESRB’s rating search widget, or by signing up for a free bimonthly e-newsletter called ParenTools that offers a list of recently rated titles complete with rating summaries and customized to their preference of rating categories and game platform.