Australians like to look at 12-13 year olds naked?

[adciv]

Boy am I glad we don't have something like that in the US.

[FireAza]

I'd have to say, I rather respect your ESRB. It does the job of informing you without taking away your freedom of choice. The OFLC on the other hand... Well, their slogan is "informing your choices" but prefer to use the phrase "restricting your choices"

[collegestudent22]

I'd have to say, I rather respect your ESRB.

You do realize that the ESRB has the same power. It can give a game an AO (adults only) rating, effectively banning console sales. It can also rate a movie higher than R, effectively banning it from movie theaters. It might not prevent sale entirely, but those can go a LONG way towards preventing people from getting their hands on certain content. (Granted, neither of those scenarios are enforced by law, but rather by the companies that would sell the products.)

[adciv]

The ESRB may be able to rate games. However, it can not ban them and some places will still sell AO games. Further, it is not required that games be rated.
The ESRB DOES NOT RATE MOVIES. That is another group ENTIRELY.

[collegestudent22]

However, it can not ban them and some places will still sell AO games.

No console developer will allow AO rated games to be released on their consoles, and those same developers require those games to be rated.

The ESRB DOES NOT RATE MOVIES. That is another group ENTIRELY.

Ok. ESRB and its equivalents.

[adciv]

ESRB AO List Note that some are, in fact, for the console. And that the death of gaming on the PC has been greatly exagerated. And that none of that has to do with the ESRB being able to actually prevent a game from being sold.

[collegestudent22]

Source

Just an hour after Nintendo of America reminded us that they don't allow Adults Only rated games to come to their systems, Sony Computer Entertainment of America has confirmed that the same is true for them.

Source 2

Though Manhunt 2 isn't slated for any of Microsoft's systems, the company has also confirmed that it does not allow AO-rated titles on the Xbox or Xbox 360.

Edit: The sole exception to this rule was in 2005 when the already released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was retroactively rated AO, at which point retailers pulled it from shelves and Take-Two suspended production of the game.

[adciv]

Again, that is not the ESRB banning the games in any way. That is the console makers refusing to allow them on their consoles or retailers refusing to carry them. It also does not block them from being on the PC. The ESRB can NOT block a game the way other countries have organizations can.

[StruckingFuggle]

Well, they can't officially, but they can still decide to keep a console game from being released by calling it AO, and if it's PC only AND AO, chances are the publisher wouldn't go forward with it (barring a few games produced for niche-er audiences) ... so they can't on paper, but in practice, where it matters, they do have that power.

[Martin Blank]

The difference is that the ESRB is not a statutory body. It cannot levy fines. All it can do is set a rating. It's generally been consistent about its ratings, and it doesn't do it by mere whim. The mere presence of the ESRB, and the neutral role that it painstakingly takes, is what has kept several politicians from pushing a more formal body. Such a body might not survive the courts, but that's not really a chance that I want to take.