App lets you snap pic to see game content

App lets you snap pic to see game content

NEW YORK

Video games come with ratings similar to movies, but plenty of parents buy games rated M for Mature for their kids under 17.

To give them more information about what’s in the games their children are asking for, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board updated its free mobile app to let users snap photos of the boxes of video games and find out what the ratings mean.

For newer games, they will also get vivid descriptions and examples of content that could be unsuitable to children.

The nonprofit industry group is responsible for assigning the ratings on every video game sold in stores. The ratings range from EC for Early Childhood to AO for Adults Only, though the latter is rare and major retailers don’t stock games with that rating.

The most-popular shooters, such as “Call of Duty” and “Grand Theft Auto,” are rated M.

For games rated before July 1, 2008, the app will bring what each letter rating means. For games that were assigned a rating after that date, it will fetch information about why they received that rating.

The video-game industry expects a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court next year on the constitutionality of a California ban on the sale of ultra-violent games to children. Parents’ groups and politicians say games should be regulated like firearms and tobacco rather than like books and movies.

The industry believes that its ratings system works well and negates the need for government regulation.

The app is available on the iPhone and on Android devices by searching for ESRB.

The year in retweets: oil spill, Justin Bieber

NEW YORK

So many people love Justin Bieber. They love him so much, that this year Twitter changed the way it counts its most tweeted-about topics to effectively exclude him.

Still, the teenage heartthrob made it into not one but three of this year’s 10 “most retweeted tweets.” Tweet that?

No. 1 was no other than that lovable faux-conservative TV comedian Stephen Colbert with his June 16 tweet, “In honor of oil-soaked birds, ‘tweets’ are now ‘gurgles.’”

Bieber himself was No. 4, with “Te quiero mucho mi amor” (“I love you so much, my love”) on July 11. But two more tweets about him — from Joe Jonas and Rihanna — were No. 6 and No. 8.

Rounding out the top 10 was another guy named Justin, who tweets about the stuff his dad says on a much-followed Twitter account that is now the subject of a TV show.

Associated Press