In September 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board officially began rating video games in North America, a practice which it continues to this day. Although the ESRB’s 30th anniversary won’t officially arrive until September 16, its employees have decided to celebrate a few weeks early by releasing a new song, E is for Everyone, which playfully explains the purpose of its game ratings.
As related on the ESRB’s official site, this song was inspired by the educational tunes from the Schoolhouse Rock animated show of the ’70s and ’80s. Presumably the animated singers in this video are based on real people who work for the ESRB, but the video doesn’t credit them by name. The lyrics of the song also explain how the rating process unfolds, the four major ratings, as well as the enforcement of the Advertising Review Council’s regulations for displaying the ratings in game ads.
The only thing that the song doesn’t touch upon are the circumstances that forced the video game companies to utilize the ESRB in the first place. In 1993, opportunistic politicians capitalized on titles like Mortal Kombat and Night Trap to whip up the public into a frenzy about games with explicit or gory content that they claimed were being marketed towards children. Congressional hearings were held, and the industry was dragged through the mud. To avoid further backlash, Nintendo, Sega, and third-party publishers agreed to adopt the ESRB’s now ubiquitous rating system.
According to the ESRB, the board has given out “over 16 million ratings to games and apps” during its 30 years of operation. In a statement, the ESRB also expressed gratitude for the support of the video game industry and promised “to continue to develop and refine the tools we offer to help keep kids’ video game experiences age appropriate well into the future.” But somehow we suspect that there won’t be new songs every year.
