4) Does the ESRB believe that the standards for what is or isn't an M-rated game can shift over the course of, say a decade? If so, how is the ESRB addressing that?
Mizrachi: "This is a tricky question. On the one hand, as a rating system, it's important for our ratings to be reflective of cultural norms and of consumers' expectations about the age-appropriateness of content, and these can and do change over time. On the other hand, there's value in maintaining some degree of consistency, which allows consumers to develop an understanding of the type of content that is associated with each rating category. The challenge is to strike some balance between these two seemingly opposed interests, to make sure our ratings remain consistent, relevant and reliable without being so rigid as to not be able to adjust when called for.
"We regularly do consumer research that measures, among other things, the degree to which consumers find our ratings helpful and their confidence that our rating will be accurate and consistent with their feelings about the age-appropriateness of content. Ultimately our goal is to make sure that our ratings remain a trustworthy resource for parents, and according to the research we've done, and that done by the FTC, our ratings continue to be regarded by them as a very reliable source of guidance."
