Are Console Parental Controls Effective

Ratings-based parental controls are available on console systems to allow parents to protect children from exposure to inappropriate media. A Chicago-based usability consultancy User Centric conducted a study to discover just how effective those controls are.

The group asked 20 adults and 20 children ages 9-12 to set up parental controls using a television with a V-Chip, a digital video recorder, a game console, and a mobile phone marketed specifically for children under ten. The study doesn’t specify which console was used for the test but results are discouraging to say the least.

• Failure rates were high: 31% (DVR), 36% (mobile phone), 42% (V-Chip), and 47% (game console). Across all four devices, parents and children had similar failure rates when setting up parental controls. Participants who reported prior experience fared no better than those who had no experience.
• The relationship between ratings systems and their impact on parental controls was unclear to many participants. When using the V-chip, participants were often uncertain if selecting one rating would be sufficient for blocking the more severe ratings. When using the game console, participants were confused whether their selection represented the highest rating allowed or the lowest rating blocked (despite explanations displayed onscreen).
• One third of participants failed to set up parental controls across all the devices. This contrasted sharply with the high confidence ratings given by participant; many participants believed they had successfully activated parental controls when they actually had not.
• Several participants failed to set up parental controls because they were unaware that they had to perform an extra step to save and then activate their selection. Parental control interfaces failed to provide sufficient visual cues on whether a specific rating was successfully selected or automatically saved as the current setting.

The end conclusion is that people still don’t understand the ratings system enough to use parental controls effectively. Still, speaking as a parent, the most effective form of parental control is to actually pay attention to what your children are playing.

Thanks to GamePolitics for the heads up.

via User Centric – News and Events