[LINK] US games rating by machine

[Craig Sanders]

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 06:39:57PM +1000, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> Busy Job of Judging Video-Game Content to Be Ceded to Machines
> By SETH SCHIESEL
> April 18, 2011
> 
> [...]
> 
> That was then. This is now. Starting on Monday the ratings board plans
> to begin introducing computers to the job of deciding whether a game
> is appropriate for Everyone, for Teens or for Mature gamers (meaning
> older than 16). To do this the organization has written a program
> designed to replicate the ingrained cultural norms and predilections
> of the everyday American consumer, at least when it comes to what is
> appropriate for children and what isn't.

this seems like an attempt to entrench current 'community standards' (as
defined by the current US ratings board) permanently into computer code,
when doing that isn't even allowed, and is deliberately avoided by legal
code.

censors tend to be old and convervative and a generation (or three)
behind current community standards, but at least the next generation
(and the generations after that) of human censors will only be two or
three generations behind THEIR generation, rather than stuck in, say,
the 1950s forever.

i.e. human censors may lag behind, but at least they do slowly follow
changing cultural norms.

programs stay the same until someone goes out of their way to change
them.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

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