A Computer Game's Quiet Little Extra: Parental Control Software

Analyst Gary Arlen of the Bethesda-based research firm Arlen Communications, said the V-chip is rarely used. As for whether the parental-control settings built into game consoles have a better chance of catching on, he said it could go either way.

On the one hand, he said, today's parents are more tech-savvy and likely to explore a gadget's extra features. "This generation of parents understands technology better than the parents who were around when the V-chip hit the market," he said.

On the other hand, Arlen wondered if today's generation of young parents -- who grew up playing video games -- will be less likely to worry about whether games are suitable entertainment for children and may be less likely to adjust the settings as a result.

Microsoft spokesman Aaron Greenberg said the company's studies show that slightly more than 10 percent of owners of the Xbox 360 are using the controls.

Game industry analysts say Microsoft has been the most aggressive console maker in trying to spread the word about its content-filtering tools. And that's logical, they say -- with the Xbox 360 on the market for over a year, Microsoft is now reaching out to a mainstream, family-oriented market to increase sales. The PlayStation 3, which has still sold only a few hundred thousand units so far, is still owned mainly by hardcore gamers -- typically, young males.

"We have done everything we can to make these tools simple to use," said Greenberg, "but we know that, at the end of the day, parents will have to be parents."

Nintendo of America said it did not know how many users have tried out the parental controls on the Wii, and Beth Llewelyn, director of corporate communications, said she was not sure that the company would be able to track their use. "We felt it was something important to do, because content has gotten much more varied on the gaming front," she said.

The system isn't foolproof. For example, the Wii is "backward compatible," meaning it can run games designed for its predecessor, the GameCube. But that console didn't have a parental-control system, so those discs don't contain ratings information. So it's possible to play a violent, M-rated GameCube game on a Wii console that has been set to prohibit the playing of games with that rating.

The system has another little hole in that anybody can set up its security code for the first time. Even a tech-savvy kid could do it, for example.

At one forum at Nintendo's Web site, where users converge to talk about the new system, one Wii owner asked last month if anybody had tried setting up a parental-control security code. Among the dozens who replied, none had. But one young correspondent said that he (or she) might use the feature preemptively.

"Now that I think of it, I might go set the code . . . so that my parents can't randomly decide to set them one day. Even though I doubt they will or know of [the codes'] existence."