Education & Outreach

ESRB continues to expand the award-winning "OK To Play? - Check The Ratings" consumer education campaign launched in Fall 2003. The campaign generates over one billion consumer impressions annually through print, television, radio and online PSA advertising and an expansive retail partnership program. The campaign is accompanied by an aggressive public relations initiative which includes news stories on television, radio, in print and online informing parents about the rating system and where the information can be found on game packaging. These efforts help to increase awareness and use of the rating system so that parents can make informed computer and video game purchase decisions. Our current PSAs can be viewed in our Media Library.

If you are interested in placing our PSA advertising in your publication or media outlet, please contact us.

Retail Partnerships

Helping consumers make informed purchase decisions at the point of sale is critical, and so ESRB works closely with retailers to help ensure that their stores display signage about the ESRB rating system, train their store associates about the ratings and enforce their store policies regarding the sale or rental of M-rated games. Click here for more information about ESRB's retail partnerships.

ParenTools & GamerTools

To help parents stay ahead of the curve when it comes to the games their kids are likely to be asking for, the ESRB offers two free opt-in e-mail services called ParenTools and GamerTools. Subscribers receive a list of recently rated titles customized to their selected platform and rating categories, complete with rating summaries for each title listed. Subscribers also get a list of the Top 10 selling games as well as other news and updates about video games and the ESRB.

ESRB Rating Search Widget

To make it even easier for consumers to find ESRB rating information before heading out to the stores, we’ve developed the ESRB Rating Search Widget. The widget is available in English, Spanish and French, and provides information about a game’s rating category, content descriptors, platform and rating summary. It can be emailed to a friend, placed on a social networking page or personal homepage, or even downloaded to the desktop of your PC. The ESRB widget makes it more convenient than ever for parents to find information about the games their kids want to play.

Partnership Marketing

ESRB is actively partnering with a variety of organizations to provide ratings education materials to parents and other consumers. This includes commercial and non-profit organizations, Internet sites, various state and local governmental bodies and many other partners.

Following are some examples of ESRB partnerships illustrating how ratings education materials can be effectively distributed to those who need them most - parents. If you're interested in more information about partnership marketing opportunities with the ESRB, please contact us.

Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

In April 2008, the ESRB and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) teamed up to develop and distribute a booklet for parents that provides information about ESRB ratings, step-by-step instructions for setting up parental controls for all new game platforms (Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Sony PLAYSTATION3 and PSP, and Microsoft Vista), a family discussion guide about video games, and guidance for parents about online-enabled games and what they can do to ensure that their child’s experience when playing games online is safe and secure. The booklets were distributed to all 26,000 PTAs, and are available in both English and Spanish on both the ESRB and PTA websites.

In support of the campaign, a webcast was created featuring ESRB president Patricia Vance, PTA national president Jan Harp Domene, and GamerDad Andrew Bub, who contributed an article about online safety to the booklet. The webcast provided parents with an opportunity to get information and advice straight from the experts, as well as ask questions about any of the topics being discussed.

In November 2006, the ESRB and PTA launched a ratings education campaign which encouraged and enabled state and local PTA chapters to educate their community’s parents about the ratings through their regular meetings. Various informational resources were made available including brochures in both English and Spanish as well as online support through both the PTA and ESRB websites. For more information on this partnership, click here.

Parenting.com

In 2008 ESRB partnered with Parenting magazine to offer readers an array of resources and information about ESRB ratings and video games. Parenting.com features an exclusively-designed ESRB rating search widget, as well as three articles by ESRB president Patricia Vance.

To keep parents informed about games their kids might want, Parenting.com also publishes a list of some of the best-selling games with their complete rating information, and features ESRB PSA ads in numerous print issues of Parenting magazine.