About 10 years ago, the industry developed a rating system similar to the kind used for movies. E stands for everyone at least 6 years old. T stands for teen, and means 13 and older; games in that category sometimes contain violence and "suggestive" themes.
M is for mature, defined as 17 and older, and may include "more intense violence" and "mature sexual themes." Many of the most popular and most criticized games -- reports suggest the two often go hand in hand -- fall into that category.
Iowa State University professor Douglas Gentile said 92 percent of children ages 2 to 17 play video games. His group, the National Institute on Media and the Family, recently sent children ages 7 to 14 into stores in four states, including Maryland, to buy M-rated games. They were successful one in three times.
Boys were more successful than girls, walking out with a game 50 percent of the time.
Harvard professor Kim Thompson studies video game content, paying a student to play -- "If anybody asks me," she joked, "I'm not hiring." She records an hour of the game, codes it for content and compares the results with industry ratings and descriptions.
In a random sample of 81 T-rated games, Thompson said, all contained violence by the researchers' definition, suggesting that Blagojevich faces a challenge in defining what Illinois would prohibit. Researchers also found that content, especially sexual content, was not always labeled.
Turning to some of the most visible M-rated games, Thompson described "genres of games that are . . . pretty much based on learning to kill." Some in the field call them "murder simulators."
"The industry," Thompson said, "continues to push the boundaries."
Critics of violent content said the Blagojevich initiative will, if nothing else, raise awareness.
"The industry has been making strides without government involvement," Gentile said, "but because of government pressure."
