As per  Eliot Mizrachi of MarketWire, “Since their inception in 1994, the ESRB ratings have become a trusted resource for parents when choosing computer and video games. In April 2007, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report(1) which found that nine in ten parents are aware of the ESRB ratings, 87% expressed satisfaction, and nearly three quarters use them regularly when choosing games for their children.”

I am very pleased that ESRB has released this application for the iPhone. I actually find myself, more and more, going to the ESRB site or using the ESRB widget to look up game ratings. The app offers instant access to ESRB’s Ratings Guide and access to the over 18, 000 reviewed game titles. Which means, if you want to make certain that a game is age appropriate – you can quickly search for the game and get back ESRB ratings results. This is also helpful when you are not certain what the game Content Descriptors mean – for example “Comic Mischief” or “Lyrics.”

ESRB is not forgetting about those dads/parents who do not have iPhone’s. If you happen to fall into that category then you can access ESRB mobile from your web enabled phone - m.esrb.org.

The interface is what you would expect from ESRB – clean and simple. You have three options:

1. Search
2. Home
3. Ratings Guide

Moving between screens is a bit slow but let’s just blame the appalling AT&T network, for that one. I have a couple of concerns with the user interface (UI) – text is small and some of the buttons are small and too close to each other. There appears to be enough real estate so the text and buttons could be larger. This would make the UI more user-friendly. Honestly, these concerns are superficial and I have been recommending, to all my iPhone carrying dads, that they need to get this (free) app, sooner than later.

Photo credit: New York Times