FRANCAIS

May 09, 2005

Culture, Heritage and Tourism Minister Eric Robinson has announced regulations under amendments to the Amusement Act that will impose penalties on violators who distribute age-restricted video games to children will come in to effect on June 1.

“Parents and retailers are concerned that Manitoba children not be exposed to adult content,” Robinson said. “This government is listening and is taking a leading role in moving to restrict the distribution of inappropriate material to children. These measures will make better information available about the content of video games so that parents will be able to make better decisions about the entertainment to which their children are exposed.”

Under the regulations, the Amusement Amendment Act will adopt the classification schemes of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). The ESRB ratings are:

• Early Childhood (EC): Titles rated EC have content that may be suitable for ages three and older. Contains no material that parents would find inappropriate.  

• Everyone (E): Titles rated E have content that may be suitable for ages six and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language. 

• Everyone 10+ (E10+): Titles rated E10+ have content that may be suitable for ages 10 and older. Titles in this category may contain more cartoons, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes.

• Teen (T): Titles rated T have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humour, minimal blood and/or infrequent use of strong language.

• Mature (M): Titles rated M have content that may be suitable for people ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

• Adults Only (AO): Titles rated AO have content that should only be played by people 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.

Under the regulations, the following will be considered to be offences:

• distribution of video games not bearing a classification from the ESRB;

• distribution to minors of video games bearing the ESRB classifications Mature (limiting distribution to people age 17 and over) or Adults Only (limiting distribution to people age 18 and over);

• failure to physically segregate Adults Only rated video games from the mainstream product offered for sale to the general public; and

• operation in Manitoba as a video-game retailer or video-game distributor without a licence. Licence fees would be the same as currently in place for video retailers and distributors.

Violators may be subject to fines up to $5,000 and the inspector will be able to seize product that is not classified or fine those who distribute age-restricted material to minors.

The minister noted that, in addition to these changes, Manitoba will also continue its work with other provinces in establishing a national standard.

This regulation is also consistent with the aims of the Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet which improves the lives of children, the minister added.

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