Industry must fund parental awareness campaign

The games industry will be responsible for promoting a greater awareness and understanding in parents of which games are appropriate for their children to play.

That's according to recommendations made by the Byron Review, published today, pulling the emphasis for funding such a campaign away from the government and onto the games business community - and most likely publishers.

"I've had lots of conversations with industry prior to the report, and I can't emphasise enough that industry has been real partners to me in this report," said the report's author Tanya Byron at the review's launch.

"It's shown me that it's an industry that is responsible, that it wants people to clearly understand that adult content is for adults – and they want retailers to be empowered to help parents make the right decisions.

"I have talked to industry about how they can enable public information campaigns to be funded, I haven't spoken to industry since the publication of this report, I need to go back and do that again, but this is an industry that clearly wants people to understand there are brilliant games for kids, that they want kids playing, and that adult games are for adults," she said, adding: "How the industry takes that forward is a matter for discussion."

When pressed on whether or not any funding would be available from government to take that forward, DCMS Minister Andy Burnham simply said, "We're looking for industry to take that forward."

Further details on quite how such campaigns might move forward aren't yet available, and will hinge on further discussions, which are likely to include publisher body ELSPA.