The PEGI content rating system has been given a “ringing endorsement” from the European Parliament, according to a statement released by ELSPA.

The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs had recently convened to discuss a report on aiding consumers (particularly minors) in playing the right kind of videogames for their maturity. In their discussions, says ELSPA, the European Parliament had endorsed a single age rating system, and that “the PEGI system provides an elegant solution to the questions raised by the evolving global games industry.”

The Committee’s meeting – which focused on a report prepared by Toine Manders, a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection – made a series of conclusions as well as the PEGI endorsement.

The first was an acknowledgement that “video games are predominantly non-violent, and a winning form of entertainment.” ELSPA adds that the Committee also claimed that games “can also be used well for valuable educational purposes.”

There was also talk of educating parents on videogame content, while at the same time the committee stated that the games industry should be encouraged to develop an effective form of self-regulation.

Finally, the Committee encouraged its member states to use and promote the PEGI system. The group also acknowledged the shift gaming has taken to online content, stressed the importance of adequate control measures for online purchases, and supported the PEGI Online system in light of this.

There is currently much self-regulation on hardware that features downloadable content and titles; with Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Apple each surveying the content which plays on their respective consoles and handhelds. 

“Toine Manders has taken a very close look at the needs of a rating system for games that works well across the EU and concluded that PEGI is the right way forward both on and off-line. It is a ringing endorsement of the rating system that we in the UK were instrumental in helping to set up several years ago,” says ELSPA’s Michael Rawlinson.

“The protection of children is of paramount important to this industry and we are delighted that a body as significant at the EU’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee fully comprehends the merits of PEGI.”

Both ELSPA and the BBFC have thrown mud at one another in recent months as the UK Government plans to establish a new content classification system.

Of that new system, there are four suggested options: to either enhance the BBFC’s system, or to enhance the PEGI system, to scrap both systems and use a voluntary code of practice, or to use a hybrid system where PEGI rates games for under 12s and the BBFC rates games for over 12s. A decision will be announced in March by the Department for Children.