Mama’s control switch in the video console

their children can play violent video games.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360, released last year, features the same sort of functionality. Like the PS3, the Xbox 360 is a multimedia device that allows users access to the web and the ability to watch movies. So the designers of those two devices included software that users can activate to make sure their children cannot watch R-rated movies or chat with strangers online.

Packed with the box for the new PlayStation 3, for example, is a sheet of paper that explains the video game ratings system to parents — with ratings like “E” (deemed suitable for “everyone”) or “T” (for “teen” audiences and up). But there’s no mention of the parental controls, which automatically detect the rating for games and let parents determine if games in a certain category are available to their children.

Peter Dille, senior vice-president of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, said the parental controls on the PS3 were put in to “future proof” the device for a day when, the company hopes, the PS3 is used widely in people’s homes.

“We tried to anticipate everything this system will need for the next 10 years,” he said. “Most of the folks buying the system today are the hardcore early adopters who don’t have kids in the house and aren’t focused on that.”

The Xbox 360, by contrast, has been on the market for a year and is now reaching for a more mainstream and family-oriented market. Microsoft has started to promote the Xbox controls in a 20-city bus tour currently underway. In a partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Best Buy, the company has been offering to teach parents how to use the controls and understand the game industry’s ratings system.

Some owners of the new consoles, meanwhile, say they weren’t aware of the settings. Stephen Baker, a father of two, picked up the Wii console on the day it went on sale last month. As a tech analyst for research firm NPD, he’s no Luddite, but he said he was surprised to learn that he could adjust the system so that anyone wanting to play a violent game would need to enter a four-digit code. “As a father, I didn’t know, and as an analyst, I didn’t know,” he said.

Some techies compare the new controls to the V-chip system built into TV sets. Since 2000, all TVs with screens larger than 13 inches sold in the United States have come with this device, designed to let parents filter programming.

Analyst Gary Arlen of the Bethesda, Maryland-based Arlen Communications, said the V-chip is rarely used. As for whether the parental-control settings built into game consoles have a better chance of catching on, he said it could go either way.

Microsoft spokesman Aaron Greenberg said the company’s studies show that slightly more than 10 per cent of owners of the Xbox 360 are using the controls.

Game industry analysts say Microsoft has been the console maker most aggressively trying to spread the word about its content-filtering tools. And that’s logical, they say — with the Xbox 360 on the market for over a year, Microsoft is now reaching out to a mainstream, family-oriented market to increase sales. The PlayStation 3, which has still sold only a few hundred thousand units so far, is still owned mainly by hardcore gamers — typically, young males.

“We have done everything we can to make these tools simple to use,” said Greenberg, “but we know that, at the end of the day, parents will have to be parents”.

—Los Angeles Times-Washington Post / Mike Musgrove