Games today range from harmless edutainment and board games to first-person shooter games that feature scenes of intense violence and even sexual content. How are parents supposed to be able to tell the difference? It's a big problem because most homes nowadays have a computer, and many have separate computers for the kids. To solve the problem, in 1994 the Entertainment Software Association established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), an independent regulatory body that applies and enforces ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy policies for computer and video games.

The ESRB applies to each game one of the following ratings:

• Early Childhood (EC) The game has no inappropriate content and is, therefore, suitable for ages 3 and older.

• Everyone (E) The game has mildly inappropriate content (such as cartoon violence) but is still suitable for ages 6 and older.

• Everyone 10+ (E10+) The game has some inappropriate content (such as cartoon violence and minimally suggestive themes) but is still suitable for ages 10 and older.

• Teen (T) The game has some violence, suggestive content, blood, or strong language that should be viewed only by persons age 13 years and older.

• Mature (M) The game has intense violence, sexual themes, or other content that should be viewed only by persons age 17 and older.

• Adults Only (AO) The game has prolonged scenes of intense violence, sexual themes, nudity, or other content that should be viewed only by persons age 18 years and older.

For some games, the ESRB also applies content descriptors, which are words or phrases that describe the game's content in general terms and explain the game's rating. Here's a partial list of the ESRB content descriptors:

• Blood and Gore Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts

• Cartoon Violence Violent actions involving cartoonlike situations and characters

• Crude Humor Depictions or dialogue involving vulgar antics, including "bathroom" humor

• Fantasy Violence Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or nonhuman characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life

• Intense Violence Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict

• Language Mild to moderate use of profanity

• Mature Humor Depictions or dialogue involving "adult" humor, including sexual references

• Mild Violence Mild scenes depicting characters in unsafe or violent situations

• Nudity Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity

• Sexual Themes Mild to moderate sexual references or depictions

• Strong Language Explicit and/or frequent use of profanity

• Strong Sexual Content Graphic references to or depictions of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity

• Suggestive Themes Mild provocative references or materials

• Use of Drugs The consumption or use of illegal drugs

• Use of Alcohol The consumption of alcoholic beverages

• Use of Tobacco The consumption of tobacco products

• Violence Scenes involving aggressive conflict

Vista's Game Explorer supports both the ESRB ratings and content descriptors in the metadata for each game. You need to display the Reading pane (select Organize, Layout, Reading Pane) to see the ESRB logowhich includes the rating short form (EC, E, E10+, T, M, or AO)as well as the rating. You can also use the ESRB data to restrict game usage, as you'll see in the next section.