International Age Rating Coalition

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IARC logo

The International Age Rating Coalition (IARC; translated: International Age Classification Association ) is an international cooperation of the various organizations responsible for age ratings , which offers a uniform, global system for the worldwide age rating of digitally distributed apps and games . With the IARC system introduced in 2013, game manufacturers can generate the different age ratings for several territories and platforms by filling out a questionnaire .

The headquarters of the IARC is located at the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in New York City .

Procedure

With the IARC system, regionally different age ratings for online games and apps can be carried out for the first time in a uniform process on a global level. Game manufacturers submit their game or their app to the system of an app platform that has joined IARC and integrated the classification process and fill out a questionnaire with questions about their product. After completion, the questionnaire to be filled out assigns the classic age rating according to the specifications of the respective national self-assessment. The cultural norms and criteria of the different regions are taken into account. The respective platform lists the different age ratings and a few other content descriptors in the product information. An important component of the system is the monitoring or checking on request of the issued IARC markings and, if necessary, an adjustment of the classification by the regional institutions. The use of the IARC system is free for developers, platform operators pay an annual usage fee.

Platforms that use IARC are the Google Play Store , the Microsoft Store , the Nintendo eShop , the Oculus Store and the PlayStation Store .

Implementation in Germany

Until the introduction of the IARC release system, the release system in Germany mainly focused on retail versions in the form of carrier media for entertainment programs according to the Youth Protection Act , the classification of which was adopted for the respective online version of the software. According to the State Treaty on the Protection of Young People from the Media , however, online content must also be rated for age. Since the previous release system required an administrative act by a representative of the highest state youth protection authorities, it was considered impractical for the large number of (international) apps and online games to go through this entire process for each of these apps. The introduction of a game expansion with a change in the content would also have entailed a re-examination. The IARC system is made much more practicable due to the automatic classification. The central peculiarity is that the evaluation is managed centrally for the respective country by the classification organizations and can also be adjusted after an examination should it turn out, for example, that the provider of an app was in error when answering a question. For carrier media in Germany, this approval procedure is still not very practicable, as a change in the release level would result in a product recall or the carrier media that are on the market would have to be relabeled at the expense of the publisher. In addition, only the release of an entertainment medium by the Supreme State Youth Protection Authorities protects against indexing by the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People (BPjM). If a medium that is already on the market is indexed, fines under the Youth Protection Act against the person placing it on the market would therefore also come into consideration. An online release according to IARC is currently "overwritten" by releasing a medium with the same content according to the Youth Protection Act. If the media receive an RC ( refused classification ) - i.e. no approval - based on the answers in the questionnaire , a review by the USK for the publication is indicated in any case, but here again the approval can be denied and then the BPjM via an indexing has to decide.

criticism

Critics had feared that the lack of an administrative act during the release could tempt the providers to obtain a “more favorable” classification for them by skillfully answering the questionnaire. However, approval is only generated after the entire questionnaire has been completed, so that a certain approval level cannot be achieved by simply trying out answer options. The algorithm that calculates the clearance for each country is not published. In addition, the approval can be changed at any time by the classification organization in the database and thus synchronized on the participating platforms. Results so far show that the classification by the questionnaire achieves very similar results to those of the expert panels in the classification organizations. The classification does not leave the approval authority of the USK. The IARC system has meanwhile also won over the Commission for the Protection of Young People in the Media (KJM) and legislators.

Should the system also be used to classify websites in the future, calls from politicians could be loud to have certain classifications blocked by youth protection programs. Demands have already been made that these filter programs should be installed as standard on all Internet-enabled devices. However, these programs are prone to errors and could be used for censorship.

Institutions affiliated with the IARC

The following regional institutions for the classification of age ratings participate in IARC:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF), Federal Testing Office, accessed on August 28, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundespruefstelle.de
  2. ↑ Classification of the content of apps and games , Google Play Store, accessed on June 11, 2015.
  3. ↑ Oculus Store Transitions to IARC Age and Content Ratings , Oculus, accessed January 9, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b Gamescom 2015: Exchange of blows on youth protection , heise.de, accessed on August 28, 2015.
  5. ↑ a b Transcript from the gamescom Congress 2015 for the presentation of IARC , VDVC eV, accessed on August 28, 2015.
  6. ↑ Youth protectionists demand pre-installed porn and youth protection filters for Internet access , heise.de, accessed on August 28, 2015
  7. ↑ The youth protection filter blocks too much , zeit.de, accessed on August 28, 2015

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