Video Games

Paul Rowen
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether he has plans to include upgrades for video games in a review of the classification of video games.

Margaret Hodge
[holding answer 13 November 2007]: Under the current classification system, a producer's upgrade or addition to a video game means that it is a different product from a previously classified game. It therefore has to be classified separately.

Part of the review being led by Tanya Byron is to assess the effectiveness and adequacy of existing measures to help prevent children from being exposed to harmful or inappropriate material in video games and on the internet, and to make recommendations for improvements or additional action. The whole classification system for video games is being covered by this review.

Keith Vaz
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what factors are taken into account before a video game is released for sale.

Margaret Hodge
Producers first test their game using the voluntary Pan European Games Information classification system. This reveals whether it must be submitted to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), under the terms of the Video Recordings Act. 

It must go to the BBFC if it contains live action (rather than entirely computer generated images) or material that is grossly violent or sexual.

If submitted to the BBFC, it is considered and classified against the same publicly available guidelines (these can be found at www.bbfc.co.uk <http://www.bbfc.co.uk>) used for cinema films or DVDs.