The much anticipated 'Byron Report' has hit the newswires this morning. Your editor has already appeared on Radio Scotland this morning - and is popping up to the BBC Dundee offices to do so again come lunchtime (tell all your friends).
In case you missed the run up to this, the UK government asked popular TV psychologist Tanya Byron (Little Angels/The House Of Tiny Tearaways) to conduct a review into the harmful effects of videogames and the Internet on children.
Many headlines and much debate and forum space has been given over to speculation on the eventual results - and their impact on the games business - but this morning the full report has emerged.
Outside the usual newspaper hysteria and uproar, the important part for the games sector is the recommendation that ALL games should be classified by the BBFC.
Currently only those titles which features specific themes or scenes, which would indicate the need for an older age rating are submitted to the BBFC, while other titles fall under the voluntary pan-European PEGI system.
This means that titles such as GTA, Manhunt, Unreal, etc. all go through the BBFC ratings system before they can hit the market. Games such as Mario, Spyro, Sonic, etc. don't.
If the new scheme is accepted - and the indication from the government is that is plans to accept the scheme in full - then it will require every game to be submitted to the BBFC before it can be released in the UK.
On the surface this makes some sense. Most people are familiar with the rating system used for movies, so applying it to games MAY start to educate parents about what is appropriate for their children to play.
What is not clear right now, is what will be defined as a 'game'. Will it only be those games which are purchased physically through retail? Will online, mobile, casual and MMO games be included? It's not clear from the information which has so far been released.
If it does include all of the above, which may well be the case eventually - even if not from the very beginning - then it means the BBFC's is going to have increase it's workload from the 2% - 3% of games which currently demand their attention, to looking at 100% of the games released in the UK.
Every Spyro game, every Sims add-on, every new NintenDog will now need to be scrutinised. If you add in the mobile games, casual games and online flash games which are, arguably, a significant new component of the industry, then it's going to multiply the number of games which require official BBFC attention by a huge factor.
Purely from a manpower and timescale point of view, that's a colossal undertaking. Will the government actually pay for the enormous increase in staff - and experienced staff at that - which this undertaking will require?
Of course this also impacts the whole concept of what actually constitutes a BBFC 'review'. The controversy over the GTA: San Andreas 'Hot Coffee' incident shows that even playing through a complete game may not highlight all of the potential content. When you add in online play, or sandbox games, then it becomes an even more difficult task to try and evaluate the game in any meaningful way.
The corollary to this is the penalties which retailers may now face. One of the other recommendations is that retailers face stiff fines, or even prison sentences, if convicted of selling games to children below the age classification.
This ignores the reality that many retailers experience on a daily basis and which has been reported in almost any discussion of the new report. If a child is told they cannot purchase a game due to an age classification, they simply return with a parent, who'll purchase the game for them - despite advise to the contrary.
This is the real heart of the debate. The need to educate parents and ensure they are aware of what is and what is not appropriate for their children. Unfortunately, both games and the Internet - which is also covered in the Byron report, seem to be areas in which parents absolve themselves of any responsibility.
Sadly, many parents are of the widely held conviction that 'games are for kids' and regardless of what stickers, labels or classifications appear on the box, will buy almost anything for their children, based on this assumption.
The games industry has created a number of initiatives over the past few years to help parents learn more about games and make appropriate choices about their children's gaming habits. Yet in any conversation, debate, panel or articles regarding age rating and adult content in games, it is obvious almost from the outset that a parent's lack of understanding is the key issue in ensuring kid's are protected from inappropriate content.
This is the heart of the Byron report. Making it far more obvious for parents what is 'good' and what is 'bad, both online and in games. The report recommends Internet and games training classes for adults and the creation of a UK-wide council which looks at protecting children from the perils of the Internet and videogames.
The council would be made up of "government, industry, children's charities, young people and parents".
The long-term effects on the industry of having this council, plus a BBFC (or BBFC style) regulatory board, could be very interesting. Controversial or adult oriented games would not simply have to pass the classification process, but would presumably be subject to the scrutiny of this oversight council.
The potential for a game to be denied release, or vilified for it's hypothetical content, could be hugely increased, with this system in place. For large-scale console titles, this could have enormous consequences. Publishers would have to think very carefully about releasing games which may be considered offensive or harmful.
Bully and Manhunt would almost certainly never have reached the market if they faced this process.
This offers the possibility of new games in long-established franchise being affected. As technology advances and graphics continue to improve, titles like Unreal, Quake, Counter Strike and Half Life could conceivably encounter problems because they are 'too realistic'.
Titles which feature other controversial content such as religion or politics, which have so far escaped BBFC oversight - assuming they don't feature violence or sex - would also presumably have to be passed and rated.
How this could affect the emerging indie scene and the potential for games to evolve into an actual art form, remains to be seen.
The real tragedy is that the games industry itself could have taken the lead and established links with government and clear and responsible guidelines for labelling and identifying games - as well as educating parents.
Instead the industry has missed the opportunity to control or lead this process. A TV psychologist and a government keen to be seen as 'responsible' are placing the industry on a path from which there could be no comeback and which could affect not only the games we play, but the games we're allowed to make for years to come.
It remains to be seen how 'the industry' will choose to respond to the Byron report and how it closely will align itself with the recommendations.
Regardless of this, the games sector in the UK will now have to get used to a level of oversight and control it's never had to face before.
