• by Steve Smith  @popeyesm, November 22, 2011

As mobile gaming begins to challenge traditional console and handheld platforms for market share, it is attracting the same scrutiny over age-appropriate content and parental control. 

CTIA-The Wireless Association announced that it will introduce an entertainment app ratings system on Nov. 29. Presumably similar to the familiar content notification symbols and warnings currently on console and PC games, the new system has been created in partnership with the same Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) that determines the age-appropriateness of content in games.

Signaling their awareness of legislative scrutiny of the gaming industry, chief executives of both the CTIA and ESRB will be joined by legislators at the Tuesday rollout in Washington, D.C., U.S. Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Mark Pryor (D-AR).

Currently, app ratings are a relatively ad hoc affair that take different forms across the major app stores. The Apple iTunes Store imposes one of four age designations with content descriptors on games.

The age markers of 4+, 9+, 12+ and 17+ are applied by Apple before an app enters the store. The Google Android Marketplace has developers assign their own rating in one of four categories: All Pre-Teen, Teen or Mature.

The ESRB currently has six content ratings, ranging from EC for Early Childhood to AO for Adults Only. There is even a ratings finder app available from the ESRB on iOS, Android and windows Phone 7 platforms.

Earlier this year, the CTIA issued “Guidelines for App Content Classification and Ratings” that called for app storefront providers to label apps for age-appropriateness and to allow for restrictions to be imposed limiting access to certain content.

The gaming industry has been engaged in decades-long debates and legislative battles over the merchandising of violent and adult-oriented video games to minors. No doubt the mobile media industry will want to avoid re-litigating these issues. Some of the bloodiest and most controversial franchises in the gaming world, such as Grand Theft Auto and Rage, have migrated to smartphones and tablets.

Any ratings standards would have to be implemented by the managers of major storefronts like Apple and Google. Third-party evaluation would entail reviewing a volume of apps far greater than the current output of console and PC games the ESRB rates.