The Entertainment Software Rating Board is something plenty of parents are familiar with. As kids I’m sure many remember or still deal with these same rating being plastered on everything we buy for Xbox, PC’s, Mac, and more. They are the group that helps moms save their children from bloody or bad age-appropriate games and things on the interwebs.
The ESRB has recently had their sights on the mobile market with leading Android and iOS apps but today we’ve learned their fate. The ESRB recently reached out and invited both Android and Apple’s iOS to join the rating system and were apparently shut down. It seems that Google and Apple doesn’t want anything to do with it, especially because they already have their own rating systems in place for mobile apps.
Currently both major mobile platforms already have a rating system in place and developers must under go a certain process to launch on either market. The ESRB simply would have developers go through and complete a questionnaire before being allow on the market and wouldn’t receive the same level of detail as the current system.
For now parents looking to keep their kids devices free of inappropriate content will have to seek alternative options or just use what is currently in place on the devices. In the future we may see an E for “Everyone” on Angry Birds, or an M for “Mature” on Shadowgun but at least for now that doesn’t seem to be the case. We’ll be sure and pay attention to this story as more details emerge.
[via Engadget]
