ESRB: Lie to us, pay up to $1 million in fines

ESRB President Patricia Vance on Wednesday testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection about informing parents about (and protecting children from) violent and explicit video games. In her testimony, Vance showed off the ESRB's war chest of available actions for penalizing publishers. The armaments include:

• Fines of up to $1 million for the "most egregious offenses"
• Suspension of publisher's access to the ratings system. Similar to the government ratings system in Australia, titles without rating usually do not get shelf space on retail stores.

In addition, publishers can be forced to

• Pull advertising until the ratings information is corrected
• Correct the ratings with stickers placed on the package
• Recall the game

To what extent the ESRB will use these tactics is uncertain. Vance's testimony (download the PDF here) was meant to soothe the government's concerns that kids being traumatized by a values-destroying games industry. When another publisher tries to swindle the ratings board, how harsh is the ESRB willing to punish the violator?

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