Comp 1: VIDEO GAMES

Assassin s creed-3---liberation from Patricia Fernandes

PEGI 

Pegi stands for Pan European Game Information. It is system whereby consumers ,mostly parents, can decide on whether they want to purchase a game for their child, depending on what is acceptable for their age. Pegi presents ratings to consider age suitability of a game, not level of difficulty, which can be confused by parents.  

This rating is suitable for all age groups. Therefore anything with the rating 'Pegi 3' means that it does not contain any sounds or pictures to do with violence and it is suitable for young children to watch. There is no bad language either making it extra suitable for any age groups especially younger children. An example of this is "Super Lucky's tale" 

This rating is Pegi 7, which means that there are scenes which can frighten younger children and very mild forms of violence, which is acceptable. It is still suitable for all ages, However, it involves mild amount of violence and there is also no bad language. An example of this is "Ben 10"

This rating is suitable for ages above 12. This is because there is more violence towards fantasy characters vs non realistic violence, towards more human like characters. In this rating, there is more positioning of sexual activity as well as adding mild bad language and gambling can occur in the game too. An example of this is "Destiny 2"

There is move depiction of sexual activity and more violence acts. They also make it seem like it's real life which gets the audience more into it as they feel as if they are part of the storyline and they themselves are the characters. There is a extreme tone of bad language as well as more illegal drugs such as cannabis. An example of this is "Call of Duty: Ghosts" 

This rating is the highest rating you can get, Pegi 18. This has adult classification when the amount of violence and sexual activity become a depiction of gross violence. Whereby the audience can take part in brutally killing defenceless characters. There is a high number of glamorisation towards illegal drugs, violence, sexual activity, with the help of human like characters and major use of bad language. An example of this is "Assassins Creed 3: Liberation" 

 Number of products rated, by age category until end of 2016

Age Class	2016	%	Since 2003	%
3	372	21%	11090	40,2%
7	405	23%	4422	16%
12	498	28%	6616	24%
16	306	17%	3524	12,7%
18	197	11%	1963	7,1%
Total	1778	100%	27615	100%

Number of products per content descriptor

Platform	3	7	12	16	18	Total
Violence		377	363	262	197	1199
Bad Language			285	90	133	508
Fear/Horror		120	38			158
Sex			64	13	8	85
Drugs/Alcohol				11	2	13
Gambling			14	2	10	26
Discrimination						0

A responsible advertisement policy

• all advertisements will accurately reflect the nature and content of the product represented and wherever reasonably practicable the rating issued
• all advertisements shall be created with a sense of responsibility towards the public
• no advertisement shall contain any content that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence
• advertising for products rated 16+ or 18+ shall not be specifically targeted towards those who are younger
• ancillary or separate products that are being sold or promoted in association with a core product must be appropriate for the audience for which the core product is intended
• licence holders should inform the public by means of a general statement of the existence of sponsorships and/or the existence of ‘product placements’ associated with any online service

Attached above is the advertisement policy which by every developer or anyone that works with Pegi has to follow otherwise if they do not follow this the developer would be fined £212,000 for not following the code of conduct. 

Depictions of Violence. If this is shown in Pegi 7 it can only be related to non-realistic or non-detailed violence. In contrast, to Pegi 18 where game is increasingly real characters 

Depictions of Sex. This includes sexual activity which is in Pegi 16 if there is any erotic nudity or intercourse without visible genitals. 

Depiction of Gambling. This could contain elements that could teach or encourage gambling which is therefore why it is in Pegi 12, 16 or 18. 

Depiction of Fear. This could be on Pegi 7 which could contain some elements of frightening behaviour towards children. However it could also be in Pegi 12 without any violent content. 

Depiction of Drugs. This could only be in Pegi 16 or 18 as it depicts the use of illegal drugs. This could influence younger target audience if they were the consumption of drugs. 

Depiction of Discrimination. The game could contain contents that show ethnic, religious aspects which could reinforce and increase hatred towards that religion. This can only be restricted in Pegi 18 as it is likely to infringe criminal laws. 

Depiction of Bad Language. This can be in Pegi 12 with only mild bad language as there aren't a lot of swearing whereby that target audience can get influenced by it. An extreme element of swearing takes place in Pegi 18.

With these control tools, parents can:

- select which games children are allowed to play (based on the PEGI age ratings)
- control and monitor the use of digital purchases
- limit access to internet browsing by applying a filter
- control the amount of time that children can spend playing games
- control the level of online interaction (chat) and exchange of data (text messages, user-generated content)

This will allow parents to control the amount of time they can play on a certain video game as well as controlling the amount of online interaction and exchange of data they can have. This is due to safety reasons as it can lead some children talking to strangers, this can follow up to certain bad things that can occur such as kidnap.