Press Conference with Senator Joseph Lieberman; Senator Amy Klobuchar; Rep. Betty McCollum - 12th Annual Mediawise Video and Computer Game Report Card

Statement

Press Conference with Senator Joseph Lieberman; Senator Amy Klobuchar; Rep. Betty McCollum - 12th Annual Mediawise Video and Computer Game Report Card

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MR. WALSH: Good morning, and welcome to the 12th Annual Mediawise Video and Computer Game Report Card. I'm Dr. David Walsh, the President of the National Institute on Media and the Family and this is the 12th year we've issued a snapshot of the video game industry, particularly as it reflects on or affects the health and welfare of America's children.

These are exciting times, of course. The technology is changing so rapidly. The games are becoming more and more realistic, more and more interactive all the time. We're on the verge, you know, I think everybody in this room knows that on February 19th, excuse me, February 17th, 2009, we enter the world of digital television, meaning all of the lines separating the various forms of media will disappear, so that children are already and will be more and more able to go from a video game to a Web site to video on demand to television programs all with the click of a remote.

And so as all of this technology changes, of course, it becomes more and more powerful, more and more engaging, more and more enticing, and every year we take a look at the video game industry, particularly as it affects children.

The research is getting clearer that violent video games have a negative impact on children, so as the technology advances, it means that we need to be more and more careful to make sure that the appropriate games end up in the hands of children, and now as the video game players get older, we know that there are going to be more edgier games on the market and so we need to make sure that everybody who has responsibility for children, primarily parents, but also the industry itself and the retailers themselves do what they can to make sure that video games are a positive influence on kids and any negative harm is eliminated.

With that backdrop, this year's report card shows some backsliding. Maybe some complacency has set in. For the first time, we've partnered with Harris Interactive, one of the world's most prestigious and leading polling organizations and he did a large national poll and Dana Markow from Harris' is going to give a little bit more detail on that, but some of the overall findings show that video games, no surprise, are very, very popular with kids, almost nine out of ten kids play video games on a regular basis, but what's a little bit disturbing in the Harris poll, what we learned from the Harris poll is that 49 percent of the eight to twelve year olds, 49 percent of the tweens, that's almost one out of two, play M rated video games. When we talk about teenagers, we're almost talking about eight out of ten, 78 percent of teenagers report that they play M rated games.

And so the question then becomes, you know, what do we need to do to make sure that those numbers start to go down? And unfortunately, we're seeing some steps backward. After some good progress in the last couple of years, we're seeing some steps kind of backsliding.

In terms of the ratings, and, of course, that's the tool that parents use to choose games, that's the tool that parents should be using to choose games. After making some good progress in ratings education, we saw some backsliding this year. Only 72 percent of the parents in the Harris survey report that they understand all the ratings. So 72 percent report that they understand little or nothing about the ratings, and that's in spite of the ESRB effort. So we've applauded the ESRB for their efforts to educate the public about the ratings, but clearly, more needs to be done and we parents need to do our part by paying attention to those ratings.

One of the issues is probably the confusion about the ratings. What we found is that twice as many parents, 54 percent of the parents understand all of the television ratings. Only 27 percent understand the video game ratings. And so we need to, I think, redouble our education efforts and that education also needs to be done by the retailers themselves.

What we found this year is that the retailers are doing less in terms of educating the public about the ratings than in past years. We see a real discrepancy there. The major retailers, the national chains are doing a good job -- very, very high percentage there, but the independent stores are doing a lot less, but when it comes to enforcement, there was a very surprising and disappointing finding. The national retailers have been doing a better, better job over the last three years of enforcing a policy of not selling M rated games to kids. This year, we saw a big step backwards. Surprisingly, the local stores, the independent retailers are doing much better in terms of enforcing the M ratings. What we found in our sting operation is that almost half the time kids could go into a store and buy an M rated game, and that's a major step backwards.

Now, I do want to note that there were three stores, K Mart, EB Games and Hollywood Video, which all had a 100 percent rating, in other words, no child was able to buy an M rated game at any of those three stores, but overall, we slid back from 78 percent last year to this year's 55 percent, a major step backward. And when we looked into the numbers, we have a suggestion for the retailers because it's clear that it's the young clerks that are selling the games, maybe even to their friends. There is a clear distinction and so when it's a young person at the cash register then a young buyer is much more likely to buy a game than if it's an older retailer.

And so I think the major retailers should probably take a lead from and make sure that they get the message to the young retailers, to the young clerks, that the policy is serious and that they really should enforce it. Game Stop, the company, made a very public statement earlier this year that it would be a grounds for termination if an employee disregarded the policy.

We had one example of a girl who actually walked into a store. She was asked to present her ID according to the policy. She was underage and in spite of that, she was still sold the game, and so we're calling upon the retailers after a couple of years of good progress to kind of redouble those efforts.

We found that there's a loophole in the ESRB ratings system. The ESRB rating system is an important tool for parents to use, but I think that the ESRB system needs to keep up with the technology. The controversy around "Manhunt 2" is the case in point. "Manhunt 2," which was banned in some countries because of the extreme violence, was submitted to the ESRB and received an adults only rating, an AO rating. Well, most people know that the major retailers will not sell a game with an AO rating. So then the game was resubmitted, but the adult content had only been blade on the disk. It hadn't been removed. Well, it doesn't take long for kids to figure out or to get the word over the Internet how to unblade that, and so the ESRB did follow their policy because Take Two Entertainment revealed that the content was still on the disk, although it was "hidden," but clearly, hidden does not have the same meaning that it might have in other times because of the new technology, that loophole really needs to be closed.

We found that in homes, four out of ten parents report that they argue with their kids about video games.

The most common argument is about the amount of time that kids spend playing video games and, you know, that's probably an argument that's worth having, however, because we parents should be aware that a study came out this fall showing that college students who play the most video games have the lowest grades. And so making sure that that time that the kids spend playing video games stays within reasonable boundaries is a good idea.

There were a couple of other kind of surprising developments this year. There were instances of public libraries and some churches even using M rated video games as a recruitment tool to get kids involved in those programs and that kind of behavior undercuts the ESRB system and undercuts parental authority. And so those are some of the things that we will translate into recommendations.

So those are some of the major findings from this year's report card.

I'm now going to ask Dana Markow from Harris Interactive to give us a little bit more detail about the findings from the Harris Interactive study.

Dana?

MS. MARKOW: Thank you.

Good morning. Today, I'm pleased to present highlights from the first Mediawise Harris Interactive poll.

We wanted to better understand several important issues: The knowledge of the video game rating system, the usage of that system and how the knowledge and use of video game ratings compares to that of movie and TV ratings, and also the impact of video game playing on home life.

So to best address these questions, we included the perspectives of both parents and children themselves and conducted two national surveys, a survey of 690 parents and a survey of over 1,100 children ages 8 to 16.

So how much do parents know about video game ratings? As Dr. Walsh mentioned, seven in ten parents say they know little or nothing about the video game rating system. In contrast, they are more confident about their knowledge of movie ratings and even TV ratings. Eighty-six percent say they know a lot or everything about movie ratings and over half, 54 percent, know a lot or everything about TV ratings. However, from kids' perspectives, they overestimate their parents' knowledge of video game ratings.

MR. WALSH: That's good.

MS. MARKOW: Two-thirds think their parents understand a lot or everything about the video game rating system and that's more than double the number of parents who say they are this knowledgeable. In fact, it's the kids themselves who appear to be more knowledgeable about the ESRB rating system. Kids are more likely than their parents to say they know what specific ratings mean, for example, 73 percent of kids say they know what the E rating means versus 60 percent of parents. Seventy-five percent of kids say they know what the T rating means compared to 59 percent of parents, and 30 percent of kids say they know what the AO, adults only rating means compared to 23 percent of parents.

So, as noted, parents' knowledge of the ratings systems for the different media is varied and they are least knowledgeable about the video games ratings.

So these findings may explain why the majority of parents support having one ratings system that could be used for all media. Fifty- seven percent support and only 11 percent oppose.

So given that most parents report that they know little about video game ratings, it is perhaps not surprising that the usage of the ratings is not more common. Only one-third of parents, 34 percent, use video game ratings most of the time when deciding whether their child may get or play a video game.

So how does this translate to the types of video games that children are playing, particularly games that are rated M? Half of eight to twelve-year-old video game players have played an M rated video game and when you look at the older age group, 13 to 16-year- olds, eight in ten video game players have played an M rated video game, and furthermore, two-thirds, 66 percent of the 13 to 16-year-old gamers have actually bought an M rated video game.

I'd like to conclude with an area of the survey where parents and kids were most in sync. There's actually agreements about the disagreement that playing video games causes. Four out of ten parents and a similar number of kids indicate that they argue very often or sometimes about the amount of time they spend playing video games. As Dr. Walsh said, that's the most likely source of their argument.

So these findings from parents and children indicate that there's definitely room for improvement in parents' knowledge and usage of the video games rating system and also a desire on the part of parents to unify the ratings system for the different types of media.

Dr. Walsh?

MR. WALSH: Thank you, Dana, and I'd like to, once again, thank Harris Interactive for partnering with us this year. I think it makes the video game report card stronger than ever and so what I'll do now is what we do every year, which is assign the grades and make the recommendations and then we'll hear comments from our very, very important supporters here in Congress.

The grades for this year, parental involvement, we started giving parents a grade a couple of years ago because, of course, parents have -- we parents have a big responsibility to learn about the ratings and to make sure that we take, that we manage the media that comes into our kids' lives and because there is so much room for improvement that we just heard, then we're giving parents this year including myself a C grade.

The ESRB ratings education, a B minus. We know that the ESRB has been very serious about educating the public, but clearly in terms of the amount of the number of parents who still don't know about the ratings, there's a lot of room for improvement and so that, the ESRB ratings education merits a B minus.

Retailer policies -- because of the backsliding in terms of the amount, the number of stores that educate the public and train their employees about the ratings system, the retailers overall in terms of policies get a C minus. When it comes to ratings enforcement as I said, the backsliding really is a cause for concern and the national retailers, the big retailers, we're giving them a grade of D this year because they did so much poorly this year than they did compared to last year.

The specialty stores, the ones who had been the weak players last year, we called upon them to step up their efforts. They did. And so they get a grade of B. The rental stores where kids can actually buy games or rent games, they do very little in terms of enforcement. They get the only F on this year's report card.

The gaming industry itself, there are many parts of that, get a C grade. While there has been some real progress, some of the marketing that happened this year needs to be questioned and so they get a C.

The ESRB ratings because of the loophole in the policy, the ESRB ratings accuracy gets a C plus. The ESRB rating, we think, should be based on all of the games content, both hidden and blurred, because clearly kids can figure out how to unlock it or unblow it rather easily.

So the recommendations as was already mentioned a couple of times, we are once again, probably we've done this for the sixth time, but I think the evidence gets stronger every year. We're calling for a universal ratings system. The fact that 72 percent of parents still don't know the video game rating system as well as they should shows and then the fact that the majority of parents would like to see one rating system that they can understand, we're calling once again for universal ratings system.

As was mentioned, the other recommendation is that the ESRB should issue its rating based on the game's entire content hidden and blared and unblared, locked and unlocked.

Retailers -- the next recommendation is that the retailers should, once again, redouble their efforts to get back on track.

The retailers were making progress each of the two years; this year, it's a step backward and that leads to the fourth recommendation, which is retailers, once again, need to increase their efforts to educate their employees, especially the younger ones about the importance of enforcing the ratings.

The fifth recommendation is for parents that we parents need to become better educated and more knowledgeable about the ratings and then use them. And then the fifth recommendation is that libraries and churches, although this is very limited, we'd hate to see this increase. Libraries and churches should not be using M rated video games as a way to entice young people into those activities.

So those are the grades, the recommendations and now, once again, I'm very, very pleased to introduce our senators and representatives who have been so supportive of this report card, Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Betty McCollum.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Thanks, David. It's great to be here with you again. It strikes me that as the holiday season approaches each year, approaching along with it are two wonderful gentlemen, Santa Claus and David Walsh. David, one bringing gifts, obviously, the second bringing a reasoned and informed warning to parents and retailers and, of course, game makers to make sure that our children are not gaining easy access to games that are not good for their health or the health of others in our society.

This is the 12th year that David Walsh has done this service. I'm delighted that Senator Klobuchar has joined us for the first time and will take the baton together from here and Congresswoman McCollum is back again.

Why do we comment? I always think when I hear David talk of the familiar saying that the stories as society tells define it and educate its children, define our culture and educate our children. Today, in the modern world, the most powerful stories being told are often those that are told by the entertainment industry, including video games and, therefore, the impact that these stories told through video games and the participation of our children in those games has an effect on them and as I say if it makes them more violent or more sexually aggressive has an effect on everybody else in our society.

There are now over 2,000 studies that say to me that media violence can desensitize children to real violence, which, in turn, can make them, some of them anyway more prone to commit violent acts and more tolerant of others committing violent acts. So Dr. Walsh is performing here a unique public service that is a very important one at this active shopping time of the year.

The report this year and the poll results, particularly, have as David as said, good news and bad news. I mean, the most discouraging I think is that 72 percent of the parents say they know little or nothing about the video game ratings system, which is particularly bad because I have always said and I say again, notwithstanding, questions we have that the ESRB ratings system is still the most comprehensive and accessible of any of the entertainment media systems.

The secret shopper results are also, obviously, discouraging, with almost 50 percent of minors able to purchase games that -- they're not supposed to be able to purchase, that are supposed to be purchased only by adults. That's up from 30 percent last year and I will say that Senator Clinton and I a couple of years ago introduced legislation to impose penalties on retailers who sell video games to children that they should not be selling by the ratings system. We pulled back on that because we see real progress occurring in the recent reports that David had done about retailer attempts to enforce the ESRB rating system.

I think this result, which represents backsliding by the retailers will give Senator Clinton and me and others reason to reconsider that legislation and to decide whether or not it's appropriate for us to reintroduce it.

As David said, whether the kids admit to purchasing the games or not, 79 percent of teenagers admit to playing games that they should not be playing according to the rating.

So we, parents, game makers, game raters, community leaders, still have a lot of work to do, but there is, obviously, some good news in this report as well.

The industry has continued to take steps that are reported here to respond to the concerns of parents and the rest of us, for instance, all new consoles are now being produced with parental controls. Obviously, the parents have to decide to use those controls, but they're there and Microsoft recently added tools for parents to set time limits for the times when their children could be playing the games with the realization of a parental fantasy if the parents will use them, and I want to also put an exclamation point next to what David said about the good news. Some large retailers, K Mart, Hollywood Video and EB Games really deserve something better than coal in their stockings this holiday season because minors were 100 percent unsuccessful in their attempts to purchase M rated videos from K Mart, Hollywood Video and EB Games stores.

And a thank you to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, which embarked on this education campaign, including creating and distributing public service announcements in an effort to prod parents to understand and pay attention to the ratings system, but of course, I agree with Dr. David Walsh and the results of the Harris Interactive poll that a lot more needs to be done. We need more education efforts. Parents need to pay more attention to their kids' media activities, use the ratings that are there and exercise some parental control over what your children are doing in their interests.

Retailers, obviously, have to do a lot more to enforce the ratings system because of the "Manhunt 2" story, which was that it went as David said, from adults only to mature audiences here, while in other countries, including significantly, the United Kingdom, the relevant British board continued to ban the sale of "Manhunt 2" because it thought it was so objectionable. So I've written with colleagues to the ESRB, asking them to review its rating system and procedures to make sure that they are consistent and not open to abuse.

I will continue with colleagues to try to pass a bill that we introduced last year called CAMRA, the Children and Media Research Advancement Act, intended to fund the study through the National Institutes of Mental Health, of the impact of media on our kids. A lot of the studies done relate to violence and media and they're quite compelling. There's less of a body of research on the question of whether high sexual content in media, including, for instance, some of the awful abuse of sexual acts that can be carried out in video games have an impact as we assume with common sense on our children.

So we need to better understand how media effect children's development and better understand and on the other side, how we can use these extraordinarily powerful media experiences to enhance our children's learning development and positive values.

We passed this bill in the Senate, the CAMRA bill. It did not pass in the House, therefore, we're going to start it all again and see if we can get it done next time.

This is an important area of activity. It tends to be taken, I think, perhaps lightly because it's entertainment and perhaps people will say, well, what are two senators and one congresswoman doing at an event like this? The fact is that so much that we do here that's intended to make our society safer with criminal laws, with education, with alternative programs to take kids away from violent acts, so much that we do to try to reduce sexual activity among teenagers, which leads to real societal problems like sexually transmitted disease epidemics and unwanted teenage pregnancies, is counteracted if the media, including video games, are sending messages that make violence attractive and sexual activity, including abusive sexual activity, obviously, mostly toward women being celebrated in some of the games.

So the good news is that most of the games out there have become much more acceptable, non-violent, non-sexually abusive, but the ones that cross the line because of the extraordinary improvements in the technology are so lifelike and so attractive and so stimulating that they represent a real risk to the safety of our society, and I think at this holiday season, it just calls out as David has warned us, once again, in a very reasoned and informed way, for all of us, particularly parents to exercise some control over what our children are buying, what we're buying for them and then, of course, how they're spending their spare time.

Thank you very much.

MR. WALSH: Senator?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, thank you, and it's an honor to be here with Senator Lieberman and Representative McCollum and also David Walsh, who is from Minnesota, in fact, one of my favorite parts about being a senator from Minnesota is that you can brag about all the great things that came from Minnesota, everything from the Post-It note to the pacemaker, but we also, of course, have the National Institute on Media and Family in Minnesota, leading the national dialogue on critical issues like the ones that we're talking about today.

Parents have a lot to think about this holiday season. I was just back home where I watched my boys among other things, but I was able to talk to a lot of parents as I was shopping and they're very concerned -- (audio break) -- appropriate for children, and it's important that parents know the research and know the ratings and know what games their kids are playing.

And I was listening to all of this and thinking of how hard it is being a parent today. When you grew up -- I know when I was in college, the computers were still in huge rooms, and you would go and walk to the computer house to do your senior essays and things like that. And suddenly our kids know a lot more than we do.

I was -- this struck home to me when I was in my debate -- one of my last debates in the Senate campaign, and we were getting asked questions, and it was a college campus. And a radio kid, his last question to me was, "Well, Senator, I want to know how you can relate to our college kids. Do you know what LOL means on the Internet?" And I just remember my daughter -- I remembered seeing her type it in, and I had no idea what it was, and I said, "No, I don't." And my 12- year-old daughter said, "Mom, that was the single most embarrassing thing you ever did." (Laughter.) "That was so uncool. I'm sure other people know what it is, and I just can't believe this. How am I going to go to school?" (Laughter.)

So at any rate, to me it was a good reminder that kids know more than their parents oftentimes about technology. And as today's report card shows, they are certainly more informed about video games and video games' ratings than are parents.

And it is more reason, I believe, they've given us today to know that parents have to be more proactive in our involvement. It's simple things that parents can do to make things better. It's knowing the passwords. It's knowing who the kids are talking to on the Internet. It's knowing what goes on on television shows. And it's regulating the time in front of the screen. I was thinking -- as I set a timer for how long my daughter practices piano, I was thinking, well, it would be nice if maybe there could be some limits on how much kids watch these video games.

For more and more households, this isn't just about computers anymore; it's about Xbox, about Wii, about PlayStation, which are also bringing images and messages into our homes that parents should monitor. The statistics that we've seen today underscore that parents are unaware of the ratings system and are unaware of what actually goes on with these games, though a title like "Grand Theft Auto" should be a strong hint that the game contains behavior that the parents maybe shouldn't want to be enforcing at home.

During this holiday season, I would urge parents not only to watch for toxic recalled toys, but also to look at these video game ratings and look at the resources available to them to monitor their child's screen time. Parents can take action by guiding their children's gift list and shopping, being present when they are playing the games, knowing what's in their child's collection, and now technology can help parents to monitor the screen time with these new locks and timers, just as technology in televisions has developed to allow parents to block certain programming. More manufacturers are now enabling such devices on these video game machines.

And I think, as Senator Lieberman mentioned, we're very aware of what violence can do, and we have to do a lot more work in this area. But we're also becoming increasingly aware, as kids read less and watch these video games more, the effect it's having on their own development and what they learn, and how our country is able to compete on the world stage.

I hope that the manufacturers keep being creative about this. I'm interested in some of the bills that Senator Lieberman has talked about and what we can do here in Washington. But I should say that one thing we've learned from this study today is that parents have to know more. The toughest role of a parent -- or, I would also add, of a United States senator -- is sometimes to say no -- to say no to the video game, to say no to another hour of TV, to say no to an R-rated movie, and to say no to a computer in a room. It's a tough job, but as the saying goes, somebody has to do it.

Preparing our children to live in the digital world requires utilizing and developing technologies to help parents teach their children, but it also requires a commitment from parents to teach their children the difference between what is right and what is wrong, what is fantasy and what is reality, and to take an active role in their lives and choices.

I applaud Dr. Walsh's efforts to increase awareness, and I encourage the retailers and manufacturers to continue to strengthen their efforts to empower parents to make the best decision for their children.

Thank you very much.

REP. MCCOLLUM: Thank you, Dr. Walsh.

I'm Congresswoman Betty McCollum, and I represent the greater metropolitan area of St. Paul, Minnesota. And I am pleased to be here with our new senator from Minnesota, Ms. Klobuchar.

Everyone at the National Institute on Media and the Family and Harris Interactive who contributed to this report deserves our appreciation for working so hard to ensure that we have what it takes to create safe environments for our children.

In almost the blink of an eye, video games have become as much a part of America's entertainment culture as movies, music and television. And their popularity is expanding. In fact, the Chicago Tribune reported this year that even seniors are playing simulated bowling and tennis matches on Nintendo.

Even as video games become more popular with adults, however, there's an endless stream of new games that will simply never be suitable for children. Unfortunately, this year's Video Game Report Card makes clear that these graphic games are still too easily available for young children, and we need a strong, united effort by video game producers, retailers, parents and lawmakers to change that.

Parents are the first and last line of defense in a struggle to prevent exposure to inappropriate games. This year's report card shows us that parents must be enthusiastic about overseeing their child's video games as our children are about playing them. Game makers and retailers, however, must give parents those tools. If kids can learn the complex codes that unlock inappropriate content in games like "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" and "Manhunt 2," then parents need to be able to understand the ESRB ratings and other information to help keep these most disturbing games out of their children's hands entirely.

More importantly, the makers of these games should never be hiding their content in games that the rating boards has asked them to remove entirely. That needs to end now -- content that they know that creative gamers will be able to unlock and view and share instantaneously with children all around the world.

The gaming industry has clearly failed to learn its lesson here. A pattern of inappropriate content hidden in "Grand Theft Auto" and "Manhunt" is a violation of a parent's and family's trust, period.

The first step to controlling inappropriate behavior is for the industry to earn that trust back. To convince us that they're serious about protecting our kids from age-inappropriate content, this gaming industry should quickly embrace this year's report card's recommendations to adopt a clearer, more universal ratings system, and to always -- always -- disclose content unsuitable for children, and never market clearly adult games to younger audiences that either through hidden content or through convenient online leaks can have that inappropriate content available to our children.

Game retailers, meanwhile, should be doing all they can to educate both parents and their own employees about the ESRB ratings system, so that they can both do their own part to follow it correctly.

Now, I want to point out, as a former teacher, when you are stuck at a grade -- and the gaming industry had been -- and you're not achieving better, teachers go back and look to see what they can do to be more effective in the classroom. This year, we had the ESRB sliding backwards. That's a clear indication to me that their content and the way that they're defining the games is very difficult for people to manage.

And so I also, along with Dr. Walsh, once again call on the rating board system to come up with a universal rating so that a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a retailer can clearly understand and know what is going out the door with the child. And I'm hopeful that the gaming industry will do everything in its power to make this a reality.

The future of video games has become more exciting. To maintain the creative vision and trust that keeps an audience for gaming, and to keep it expanding, we must continue to establish enforcement sensibility standards for age-appropriate games.

I'm very happy to be here today. As a parent, I'm happy to be here to tell other parents: know what you children are playing. If you're an aunt or an uncle and you've got that list, take the time to go online and learn what the ratings systems means. And if you're a big brother or a big sister or an older cousin, and you know somebody has something that's inappropriate, please, talk to the child and let the parents know. We can all do more to make these opportunities for our children to be creative and visionary through video games a safe and an experience that will do no harm.

So Dr. Walsh, thank you so much. I found the Harris poll just reinforced my call for one rating and one rating only. Thank you.

MR. WALSH: Thank you very much.

Before we show you the annual collage of images which I think illustrate why these games don't belong in the hands of kids, I just want to make two quick points.

One was one that's already been made. We learned from the Harris survey that four out of 10 parents argue with their kids about how much time they spend playing. And as I understand it, today Microsoft -- the Xbox 360 time-limit feature goes into effect today. And so this is a technological tool, another help for parents.

And then the other -- the comment about the loophole in the ESRB ratings system I think is underscored by the fact that even though "Manhunt 2" is released with an -- was re-released with an M rating, Target stores wouldn't put it on their shelves. So if Target won't sell it because they know that kids can get at that adult content, then it should be clear to the ESRB that that's a loophole that needs to be closed.

After we show you this year's collage of the games, then we will be open for questions.

(A movie displaying footage from various games is shown.)

MR. WALSH: That concludes the -- this year's report card.

Senator, can you stay for any questions?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Sure.

MR. WALSH: Congresswoman?

REP. MCCOLLUM: I can stay for a few minutes.

MR. WALSH: We'd be happy to entertain any questions that you might have.

Q Um --

MR. WALSH: And for whom?

Q Well, I guess this would be to anyone that might have an answer. (Chuckles.) Do any of you have suggestions or encouragement for parents who personally have no interest or desire in playing video games themselves? And then a second question, which perhaps I should know the answer to, but I don't know. Where do stores or retailers have to post their video game ratings for what they are selling?

MR. WALSH: Okay. I'd be happy to take a crack, and then people can add.

I think for parents who have no knowledge of, perhaps, or no interest in video games, I think that a tool that we constantly recommend is the ratings. All the games have the ratings. The good news is, right now in the United States, all of the ratings are on the box, on the front of the box. We think that the ratings can be improved, but they are still the tool that parents should be using, and we should learn about them.

I think another thing that we parents should do is keep media out of kids' bedrooms. We know from research that media in kids' bedrooms reduces our ability to supervise. It also, by the way, increases screen time. Kids with media in their bedroom are at a 31 percent greater risk for overweight and obesity, which is another problem we haven't even talked about today.

And so those are, I think, some things that parents who don't know a lot about video games -- those are some things that we can do.

I think -- did you have a second question?

Q Yeah. I was wondering where do the stores or retailers have to post their ratings.

MR. WALSH: Oh, yes, yes. Yeah. The ratings are on the game, and so every game that's sold by major retailers in the United States has a rating on the box itself, and it's big. I mean, you have no trouble seeing it if you're looking for it.

Q There's no signs that have to be posted in the stores?

MR. WALSH: The ESRB really recommends that all the people who sell games have information explaining the ratings and telling people how they work, and that they should use them. The problem is, as you saw in this year's report card, is that not all of the retailers are doing that. The major chains do a better job than the independents, so the independents should do a better job at that.

REP. MCCOLLUM: Yeah, it varies from retailer to retailer. I'm more conscientious now when I walk into a store that's selling video games. I actually look for it to see where it is, and it very much varies.

And retailers can really set a strong example also to the industry. I think it tells a lot that Target stores did pull "Manhunt 2" -- a Minnesota company, we might point out, standing up here as four proud Minnesotans -- to make a decision on that -- because I'll tell you, when parents hear that a game's been pulled by a major retailer for inappropriate content, that word gets around, and it makes parents realize that the ratings system should be playing an important part of their life.

But the ratings system is far too complicated. Parents understand movies.

They understand TV. The record industry is even far more transparent as to what the content of the game is going to be. We just saw a lot of games that were rated M, for "mature," that -- what does that mean? Seventy percent of the content? Fifty percent of the content? Ten percent of the content? It's very, very confusing to far too many parents, and we need to make this simple, so that they can look out for their kids.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: You know, I'm in that class of parents that doesn't really like video games. My husband -- maybe it's because I'm not good at them, either. My husband grew up playing them, and he says I'll never be able to achieve any kind of skill with them because I never did them. But -- and my daughter doesn't really like them, I think, because she's a prosecutor's kid. And so every time she sees even a gun on TV, she goes like that.

But I will tell you that I still think that if your kids are interested in them -- and a number of her friends are -- I think the parents have some obligation to at least watch the game, to see what their kids are getting, to first check the ratings, and then if they're over at someone's house and you go pick them up -- which has happened to me -- and they're watching some game, to see what it's about and see what's happening on it. So I just think that you may not want to play them, but I think you got to look at them.

Q For anyone who wants to answer the question, I consider the ESRB similar to the tobacco industry, same thing: selling out unhealthy products. How is a parent supposed to keep up when the content descriptors in the video games change from mature to teenager? You see the violence that was at the mature level now in the teenager level. How are parents supposed to keep up with this?

MR. WALSH: The question, in case you didn't hear it, I think had to do with rating slippage, if I could use that term. I don't think it's just video games. I think, as we become all more desensitized to violence, then things that used to be an R-rated movie today are often in a PG-13 movie. Things that might have been an M-rated video game five years ago today are a T-rated video game. And I think that's part of what we need to say to the boards that are doing the ratings; that, you know, we really -- you know, this is a tool, and as the media get more powerful, these tools become -- have a bigger responsibility.

Q If I can come to another part of that, the movie industry, the music industry and the video game industry all have -- and these are beginning to merge, these industries.

MR. WALSH: Yes.

Q Why aren't these ratings systems becoming more standardized?

MR. WALSH: That's a good question. The question, in case you didn't hear it, was, with all of the industries merging, why won't the ratings system -- why won't -- why can't we adopt one universal rating that everybody could understand? That's a really good question.

And if the market were speaking, we know from the Harris Interactive survey that's what parents would like. And so if we're really trying to create a tool that parents would like, there should be a universal ratings system. That should be very clear to everyone.

REP. MCCOLLUM: There is -- one of my colleagues in the House has introduced a bill calling upon -- it's the FCC, isn't it, Brian? The Federal Communications -- I wanted to make sure I had my alphabet right here -- to take a look at it. And I think having the institute that's mindful of kids' development and health take a look at the content of the games, we also can move much quicker in looking at the content of the ratings, so that it's easy to use.

So I'm looking forward to helping that bill move along, and -- as well as Senator Lieberman's bill coming over to the House, to have a full debate on the floor this year with the new speaker.

Thank you.

MR. WALSH: Thank you very much.

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