The German laws regulating alcohol usage as well as sale are mainly focused on youth protection. As opposed to numerous various other countries, the legislation is not developed to maintain young individuals far from alcohol completely, but rather to show them a suitable technique to alcohol intake.
The idea for this report was built 26 years ago. At that time, Windows 95 conquered the PC and repressed the up the Dominant operating system MS-DOS. In addition, the calculators were now efficient enough to emulate old game classics. That in turn made Publisher Activision in his collection Atari 2600 Action Pack (1995), which united 15 old VCS games. On board River Raid from 1982: a shoot em-up veteran, where the player flew with an airplane over a river and shot ships as well as other aviators.
The collection harvested good reviews, only Activision had apparently one not considered: River Raid had been one of the first games indexed in Germany since 1984, which is why the Action Pack in Germany could not have been sold neither advertised nor public.
It took seven more years until another collection called Activision Anthology appeared in November 2002 - this time for the PlayStation 2. In the course of this, the publisher submitted an application for the legal situation to be clarified in Germany. It was granted and River Raid canceled on 31 January 2003 from the list of indexed games.
Table of contents
- 1The fairy tale from the strict German youth protection
- 2Von a tragedy for turning
- 3time softening
- 4 unit Europe
- 5Down under
- 6open World Games in Disadvantage
- 7No sex in the USA
- 8The unmanageable online market
Teenager in Germany In the change of time: The classic River Raid was indexed in 1984 and classified as completely harmless over the next two decades from the USK. Source: Activision / Media Agency Plassma Now the Pointe: Both collections got an age release of the entertainment software self-control, short USK. And their verdict was: released without age restriction!
For the sake of accuracy, it was said: In the network spirit coverbilds of the German PS2 version around, which adorn a from 6 years stickers. However, the USK speaks unambiguously on its official website von a release without age restriction. And ultimately it does not matter if the collection has now been released from 0 or 6 years. Fact is: Within two decades, the youth protection turned completely 180 degrees. From a game, according to the official justification of the Federal Testing Office for Youth Hazard Scriptures (short BPJs) and the player in the role of a compromising fighter and destruction should suddenly became a harmless ballout, which one was in good conscience Entering elementary school children.
Of course, this is an extreme example, but still shows: The award of age releases is based on no mathematical facts.
The fairy tale from the strict German youth protection
In Germany we have a very lively discussion about the influence of computer and video games on children and adolescents. If you alone The English-language Wikipedia page about Forbidden Games anschaut, this impression seems to be abroad. There are a total of 38 countries listed, with a quarter of the entire text referring exclusively to Germany. That s why we want to clarify at the beginning of a clearness: Our youth protection is not the strictest against all prejudice - by far.
But before we look abroad, we stay in Germany and briefly summarize: The USK was founded in 1994 in cooperation with the Förderverein for Youth and Social Work E.V. and the Association of Entertainment Software Germany. For a long time, she served as a youth protection facility, which gave up non-binding age recommendations. Above all, she could not prescribe which games were allowed to be sold to whom.
The British ELSPA was known in the 90s for its low age recommendations. However, the Action Adventure Ecstatica (in the picture) got an adult classification. On the other hand, the USK awarded a from 12 stickers despite torture scenes. Source: Psyngosis / Media Agency Plassma The only institution that could make such a thing, was the BPJs: As a federal agency she had the handle to index games. Although this measure was not equivalent to a nationwide ban, but equipped with massive restrictions. So indexed games are no longer sold to young people under the age of 18, a dealer could not offer them publicly for sale and we also had journalists to be careful not only to name an indexed game. Because an indexing closed an advertising ban, including any test and criticism automatically fell - whether positive or negative!
The worst, however, was the arbitrariness: Since indications took place only on request, some titles were tested for years after their publication. In 1981, the very first Castle Wolfenstein for Apple II computers appeared, but the content-like C64 implementation was under the magnifying glass only six years later.
From a tragedy to the turnaround
All this changed in April 2002, when a 19-year-old at a high school in Erfurt began an amooker and at his former school 17 people including themselves shot. Although it quickly became apparent that its main motive was suspected of the sacking of the school and thus had no conclusion thanks to the Thuringian state laws. However, the computer and video games in the criticism were right after the criticism and were expressed by loud voices of the press as well as politicians as a scapegoat.
Quickly the term killer games made the lap, the layman today still use for all sorts of ego or third-person shooters. The calls for banners of these titles seemed to become more and more dominant, until a small miracle happened: Under the pressure of the public, the BPJs received the application that has been published for several years ago Counter-Strike \ - 1999 as Half-Life-Mod to consider. In the end, however, the Federal Testing Office saw from an indexing because the playing principle of the tactic shooter was not only designed to kill stupides. The old Counter-Strike was the crucial key game, which is why the Youth Protection Act Anno 2003 was changed in Germany. Source: Valve / Media Agency Plassma, however, were clear at the same time: Counter-Strike did not belong in children s hands! The BPJs was simply not responsible for a fine-scale age range, as the voluntary self-control of the film industry (short FSK) for movies took place. There was no legal framework, which is why one had to be created and suddenly the USK moved into the limelight. Finally, since the founding, one made ordinary work, which reminded the work of the FSK in their form.
The consequence: The USK was granted responsibility in the course of a change in the Youth Protection Act to take care of legally binding age shares. Since then, the employees of the establishment of each game to be tested in Berlin play through and cooperate with a testing committee of independent experts and a permanent representative of the Supreme Land Youth Authority. This group of people ultimately decides which age release is traversing on the cover of a game.
Continuous softening
What sounds like a massive tightening has been a huge happiness in truth - especially for adult players. For in the same breath, the above-mentioned arbitrariness was thrown overboard: The Federal Testing Office for Youth Hazard Scriptures was renamed in Federal Testing Office for Youth Hazardous Media (short BPJM) and may have no games on the index since April 2003, which have received an age release from the USK . The first Borderland was trimmed for some countries due to its violence for some countries (including Germany), developers Gearbox software turned the degree of violence when continued. Source: Gearbox / Media Agency Plassma
That the USK is not perfect, no one may surprise: Your job is more difficult compared to the FSK because it consumes not only passive movies. Employees must trim complex games, and this in the best possible thoroughness. And of course, a manufacturer can cheat by hiding over-smoked violent scenes in a spongebob breeze in the form of an Easter Egg. But why should he do that? It would not take a week until the incident would be tired of daylight and the backlash would hardly endure.
More problematic are rather the creeping changes in the evaluation criteria, where you never know: Has the company changed, so today other standards considered 20 years ago? Were the old criteria just too strict and you do not want to ever bring the same, false arguments? Or - and this is a deliberately provocative question - is the industry now too large and economically profitable to throw triple-a productions a stick between the legs? After the uncut original of GTA 4 in Germany has been released in a miraculous way from 18 years, the amount of censored titles took off in this country noticeably. Source: Rockstar / Media Agency Plassma Fact is that Anno 2004 has received a Grand Theft Car: San Andreas No marking and has been cut specially for the German market for a USK sticker. But no four years appeared with GTA 4 a thematically relative successor, which was much more immersive due to its better technology and the USK to a surprise of many in uncensored form wave.
What you should never forget: Many manufacturers prevented preventive changes to no trouble with German youth protection. Allegedly, some games like Borderlands 2 (2012) were even defused in terms of violence degree even worldwide to avoid country-specific problems. That sounds plausible, because three years earlier Developer Gearbox Software had to be specially adapted for the German market version to get a release for the first part of the Loot Shooter series.
Today, versions adapted to Germany are almost extinct: Trusts the website nittreberichte.com ), which compares very meticulously censored with uncensored publications, then has barely games since 2014, which were trimmed for the local market. The last hurdle fell in 2018, whereupon you can now even show hakenkreuz icons in the historical context . And last but not least, hardworking formerly indexed versions are re-examined and evaluated, including the uncensored version of the Just mentioned Borderland. Mortal Kombat X logs in to the service: after the BPJM had apart from an indexing, the cult series could finally be officially sold in Germany with all its bloody fatalities. Source: Warner Bros Interactive / Media Agency Plassma All This will only be addressed by the mischievous case around Mortal Kombat X (2015), where Publisher Warner Bros. Interactive had never expected an age release in Germany. You did not want to submit the game only at the USK, and as expected, the title ended three months after release on the table of the BPJM. There they decided to surprise all against an indexing: The game was just through the convertial fatalities and fantasy setting realistic enough, which is why the border with youth hazard would not be exceeded . The consequence: Warner Bros. Interactive submitted Mortal Kombat X short-manner at the USK and received an age release from 18 years.
Therefore, in our opinion, it seems that the strict reputation of the USK is mainly due to its thoroughness and scope of the examination. All this is significantly lower in other countries.
Unit Europe
First of all, Pan European Game Information (short PEGI), which sets age shares for a large part of Europe plus Israel and draws something more out of responsibility compared to the USK. So it serves today in many countries rather than orientation instead of a law that could forbid the sale violent games for minors.
Also, confidence in the manufacturers is a whole corner larger: these fill out a questionnaire first, where they themselves provide information about the degree of violence or the display of naked skin in their products. There are also a video and the game itself, which is only checked in retrospect from other organizations such as the NICAM or the VSC Rating Board or compared with the information provided by the manufacturer.
According to the official PEGI website , such a process runs over four to ten days. Whether the games are played completely like at the USK once completely, is not apparent and probably not the case. The Revenge of the BPJM: Only a few weeks before the USK age recommendations have been released on legally binding releases, the Federal Testing Office fully made a small grabbing and indexed the strategy game Command & Conquer: General and Capcoms Horror Adventure Resident Evil: Code Veronica . Source: EA Pacific / Media Agency Plassma Furthermore, the PEGI uses a good idea in principle, in which you realize however quickly: too detailed is not good. So the PEGI sticks more stickers on the pack that explicitly warn from swimming words, horror or sex. With a distance most frequently, the violence label appears, which can be seen more than half of the nearly 32,000 tested games.
The Discrimination Sticker, however, does not seem to have prevailed at all, because according to the official database, only three titles received him: the strategy game original was (2001), the tactic game SWAT: Target Liberty (2007) and the ego shooter Patriots: a nation Under Fire (2007). In addition, there are two add-ons that we do not want to name due to the still indexed main program.
All five titles come from 2004 to 2007 - and to be honest, we can seriously imagine that a manufacturer voluntarily describes his own game as a discriminatory . Not least because of the associated stickers automatically coupled with a release from 18 years.
Not quite so hard is the verdict with another topic: If PEGI is in the truest sense of the word drugs in the game, then an age recommendation under 16 years is no longer possible.
Down under
If we leave the European continent, then we quickly come across another institution that has apparently a much greater problem with drugs. The youth protection in Australia is regulated by the Australian Classification Board (short ACB) and at first glance is a mixture of USK and PEGI. Will mean: all games under an age release from 15 years are freely available, while all can only be sold to persons with a corresponding minimum age.
There is also a general sales ban for all films and games that a release is denied. And if you look at the list of these forbidden games, then you often notice complete justification: Banned BCause of Drug Use Related to Incentives and Rewards. Free translated: Forbidden due to drug use as an incentive and reward. One would like to believe that a zombies like State of Decay gets high age shares due to bloody fighting. But even here, Australian youth protection disturbed more on the consumption of drugs instead of borrowing of brainless people. Source: undead labs / media agency Plassma A wonderful example of this is the Zombie Survival Game State of Decay (2013), which would almost no age release in Australia. The reason: the player can improve his character by increasing illegal substances. Now you can already argue about the strict guideline in itself, but it becomes even more idiotic: US developer Undead Labs ultimately just had to replace a few words or more specifically replace stimulants against Supplements - and everything was fine! Free after the motto: Vitamins instead of drugs.
Otherwise, the topic of drugs in Australia seems to be an absolute No-GO, which is why it has even caught the German role-playing game Risen (2009) in Down Under. There, however, in addition to smoking scrubbing, another feature for trouble - namely the fact that you can have sex with prostitutes in the game. Incidentally, Risen was certified by PEGI an age release from 16, while the USK was limited to a relatively generous from 12 years . How can that be?
Quite simply: Risen is purely in terms of content no child of sadness, but keeps very back in the presentation. So in the fighting there is little blood to see, the sex with the prostitutes is only verbally expressed rather than graphically shown and the smoking can be seen in this country as little as a reign of youth. In general, German youth protection will be released compared to the international rather stricter if something is shown and not only spoken - and vice versa.
Zynikers could also indeed praise: The game has received a rather mild release with us because developers Piranha bytes also comes from Germany. And in fact, there is a country that gives its highest possible age classification almost only for games from abroad and spared most of its domestic products: Japan.
Open World Games in Disadvantage
In the Far East, there are the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (short Cero) , which has been active since 2002 and works similar to the PEGI. It does not matter immediately that for the years 0 to 11, only one rating exists: Cero A. The other way around Cero D (synonymous with from 17) and Cero Z (synonymous with from 18) only one year apart. However, the legal differences are immensely because Z-games may only be sold by submitting a proof of age. The Open World Series Assassin s Creed is largely released from 16 years - with the exception of Japan, where games of this kind almost automatically receive the merciless Cero Z stamp. Source: Ubisoft / Media Agency Plassma
According to the official database, more than 17,500 test methods received slightly more than 450 games such a Cero-Z rating. Because it caught especially open-world titles such as Assassin s Creed 2 (2009) or GTA 5 (2015), almost all cases from America or Europe come. Only a few exceptions such as the Visual Novel Chaos; Child (2014) or the brutally staged action game Killer7 (2005) have emerged in their own home country.
On the other hand, Japanese children can theoretically buy such revenue titles such as Dead Or Alive Xtreme 3 (2016), just because on the pack only a D rating can be seen. This would lead to great outcry especially in the US - there scarce bikinis, placating poses and rocking bosom are known to be a big crowded theme.
No sex in the USA
US-Americans have to deal with the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ) since 1994 after the controversial multimedia adventure Night Trap (1992) and the first mortal combat (1992) caused headlines and resulted in a congress hearing.
On top of that, no one is likely to be surprised that in the US, the presentation of sex is a bigger problem than that of violence. Therefore, almost all games show with an adult-only rating of naked skin and explicit sex scenes. The only exceptions are the officially never-released beat game Thrill Kill, the UR version of a game indexed in this country from Rockstar Games from 2007 (which had to be censored worldwide) and Ein abysmal evil PC game of 2015 by developer destructive creations Germany is also on the index.
And then there would be the drama around GTA: San Andreas (2004): Originally, the Open World Hit received a expected Mature ranking, equivalent to a recommendation for everyone from 17 years. But then the famous-notorious hot-coffee mod made her rounds with which one could spend the sex scenes in the form of a simple mini-game. No power to drugs! The role-playing Disco Elysium was hard to fight until it received at least one from 18 -age release in Australia. Source: ZA / UM / Media Agency Plassma The mod therefore caused great vortex because it used unused code of the original DVD. This was probably more fun through the developers programmed and disabled before publishing rather than deleted. Therefore, the owners of the PlayStation-2- and Xbox version also came to the enjoyment of Hot Coffee - and again enough for an outcry, which went through the entire land and subsequently brought the game an adult-only rating. The damage and the lousy PR were so tremendous that Rockstar GTA: San Andreas in the US from the sale took, patched and a completely new edition brought in the trade - almost a year after the original release!
It gets really bad, if a healthy serving of incompetence is added. Thus, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (2006) in the United States was subsequently ranked to an M-rating title because the ESRB was pointed out on various violent scenes after their exam and, on the other hand, nudged breasts that a modder afterwards Game integrated!
In any case, this topic leads us to the last chapter of our report and the biggest problem behind all youth protection debates: How should one cope with the flood of online games?
The unmanageable online market
We have already discussed in our article games and the addiction trap some construction sites very detailed, especially the debate around Lootboxes as well as gambling mechanics and that they hardly play a role in the assessment of USK, PEGI and Co. so far. But beyond that, the sheer mass on apps and download only titles is hard to stop. Efflictive is added that more and more games are changing over time. Which shareholder can already become a Lord?
The USK itself has kept out of the topic for a long time and still checks only games that appear on physical media. However, she was instrumental in the establishment of another institution, which has existed since 2013, dedicated exclusively to online games and operates worldwide: the International Age Rating Coalition (short IARC) The concept behind it is the same at first glance of PEGI or the ESRB: The manufacturers give themselves what is in their games. Thereafter, several age rules are automatically granted, which are based on the individual guidelines of the individual countries. The BPJs was merciful in the mid-90s, which invested ego shooter and human opponents. Therefore, the authority even indexed Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995), although the shooter came out completely without blood. Source: Lucasarts / Media Agency Plassma After all, no appreciable scandal is known, which makes the system seriously in question. The IARC checks as well as whether the content indicated by the manufacturers are also correct and, of course, responds to complaints if a discrepancy is reported.
However, there is a big hook: while online platforms such as Nintendos Eshop, the PlayStation Store of Sony or the Microsoft Store cooperate with the IARC, expanding Apple and Steam. Therefore, thousands of games are completely through the grid, and it threatens a kind of arbitrariness again, as at that time in the 1980s.
For example, you could buy Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995) on Steam, although the ego shooter was indexed by the end of 2020. In the meantime, the distribution was made aware of this circumstance, which is why you locked the title by GeOblocking. Meanwhile, the indexing is time-barred and the game is available, for example, the competitor gog.com. Steam, on the other hand, knows nothing about it and just locks the title for all German customers.
Thus, the end should be noted that there is still a lot to do. Sure, the detailed way of the USK is impossible for all games of this world. However, PEGI and IARC show how a reasonably reasonable child protection is possible: if all involved stay fair and transparent. And as long as you can use virtually any uncensored version of a game as an adult, we should not complain too much about the topic of youth protection.
From Andreas Altenheimer author & Maria Beyer-Fistrich Brand / Editorial Director 02.10.2021 at 10:00
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