Jon_Mclane  |  March 18th, 2010 at 1:55 pm

I’m pretty sure both the 360 and wii work on a regular E-M rating scale. Stop trying to make your own weird rating system Sony.

Akairs  |  March 18th, 2010 at 3:46 pm

I want the ability to control access to folders and games on a USER level not locking up my whole machine like Fort Knox. I don’t care about the levels but I want to make sure my folders in my movies can be locked for just the USERS. Right now parental controls are USELESS as I can’t even tell what I am trying to unlock on my main user account. I want to set up my kids so they can’t access folders on the PS3.

Xbox 360 has great controls but I want better from my SP3

Wolfram23  |  March 18th, 2010 at 4:34 pm

I agree with this and I don’t even have children (I’m 24). There’s a reason to have ESRB standards, so what’s with the vague number system?

webtalon  |  March 18th, 2010 at 5:36 pm

I highly agree with this. I want to be able to set up an account for my kids to allow them to play some demos and games that are age appropriate, without locking down the entire system.

It would be really nice to be able to set access levels based on the user logged on. (probably wound need passwords to log on to make this really useful)

Also, the ability to over-ride the rating system for specific games if you are in the ‘master account’ would be really great. If I feel Burnout Paradise is ok for my kid to play, but another Teen rated game is not, it would be REALLY nice to be able to set specific ratings for a few specific games.

And I agree with switching from 1 to 11 to a E-Ao rating to match the ESRB.

P_dump  |  March 18th, 2010 at 6:26 pm

I could understand this rating system being around at launch, in Japan the rating system is different. But now that we have regional-specific firmware updates the US should have the ESRB setup.

zachattackary  |  March 18th, 2010 at 9:02 pm

Many countries have different rating systems. I think if you at the very least were to explain the rating system (perhaps make a help button by pressing some button), people would be much less confused.

Kevling  |  March 19th, 2010 at 4:33 am

Every game I own explains which number relates to which age rating on the first page of the manual (here in the UK) so the number rating isn’t an issue for me…

I agree that we need a more flexible parental co trol system. I want to be able to play 18 certificate games but also prevent my 7 and 11 year old kids from doing so. The current system presumes the same controls apply to every user on the PS3 but it needs to be on a user by user basis, possible password protecting user accounts so the kids can’t get round it by logging on as Dad

AlexDrelles  |  March 19th, 2010 at 9:18 am

I wish I could vote for this 100 times a day. I have 2 young boys who love to play PS3, it’s a huge headache managing this with the current parental controls. Burnout Paradise is a great example of a teen rated game that I’m OK with the boys playing, but not Uncharted 2. Please give parents more flexibility.

P_dump  |  March 19th, 2010 at 10:36 am

@ AlexDrelles. Or you could just manage what games come into the house.

De-Ideal  |  March 21st, 2010 at 8:20 am

I agree with Kevling, password protected user accounts with the possibility of setting each user a separate rating to play the games.

Also, what is up with the demos showing only “Restricted content” when the system is told that they are over the limits. Now I have 10+ demos on my system that don’t have a displayable title, only “Restricted content” in their names.

The parental control must be improved, even a basic thing like making a specific game as an exception is missing.

Mike_DC-08  |  March 25th, 2010 at 1:38 pm

When using parental controls, for games that are restricted based on the setting that is selected, the game title is hidden. When you have games stored on the hard drive and several of them are hidden, it makes it very tedious to find the game you want to play. All game titles should be visible regardless of the settings.

Sony should just show an extra icon (maybe a lock) on top of the game title to denote that a password is required to play the game.

I have an 8-year-old who I do not want to play certain games. But I’ve opened too many password protected games only to find out it wasn’t the one I wanted to play that I’ve turned off the parental controls.

hillybillybobby  |  April 24th, 2010 at 12:48 am

As said above, being able to adjust the parental level up/down on both a game AND user based level is much needed. Been missing that for years.

As an example, I let my 9 year old child play the Guitar Hero games (PEGI 12 in Europe), but not a war game like IL-2 Sturmovik (PEGI 7 in Europe), and having to enter the PIN code on each and every game start with him not whatching is so primitiv. At the same time I can’t prevent him from downloading the demo of IL-2 Sturmovik from PSN, and make it locked for him if I myself would like to play it.

All the above also affords a password system per user – see and vote for it at http://share.blog.us.playstation.com/ideas/2010/03/17/password-for-users/#comment-35380

(BTW, also make it possible to enter the PIN code using a keyboard without showing the code in clear on the screen. This should be simple.)

boneyardweller89  |  April 27th, 2010 at 7:27 pm

I don’t have children, but I agree that an “E-Ao” system would be better than the vague number system.

It would also be nice to be able to limit how much time kids spend playing the console per day/week/month etc.

Wolf26pack  |  July 15th, 2010 at 1:00 am

I remember reading this in my PSP’s 1001 Instruction manual & I think it is also relevant to the PS3.

AGE GROUP/ UMD PARENTAL CONTROL LEVEL
EC = Early Childhood Level 2
E = Everyone Level 3
E10+ = Everyone 10+ Level 4
T = Teen Level 5-8
M = Mature Level 9
AO = Adults Only Level 10

I whole heartily agree that the Parental Controls should be based on the ESRB Levels with it being based on a user to user basis. It should lock out all folders except for the Game folder, so each user should have private Picture & Music Folders. It of course would require a Password System and only the Master account would be able to change any setting including the Parental Controls, that would pretty much end the ability for the kids to restore the factory settings their for disabling the parental controls all together. Also it should have the ability to also assign certain games non-playable on individual profiles, that was no stone is left unturned.

CuteBoringLove  |  September 25th, 2010 at 11:54 am

I don’t have kids, I need a way to stop my roomate from using my ps3 more than I do because it irratates me to come home from work and see him plopped on the couch using it until the early morning. So I set it to level 1 but I can’t see any of my downloaded games. Setting it off and on when I want to use it myself is a bit tedious.

Tombstone_5_0  |  November 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 pm

I agree with what was said above a few times. Lock out the game, not the game title.

And I also agree with user account pin protection. +1

Mystakill2  |  September 5th, 2012 at 9:01 pm

If the numerical levels equate to a specific rating, that rating should be displayed alongside the numerical level.

Also, any content which isn’t playable due to level restrictions should still be viewable. Otherwise, you’re left with a bunch of generic icons and no way to know what’s what without first unlocking them *one icon at a time*. The numerical lock is tedious to use, and easy to defeat since the digits are displayed onscreen long enough for my kids to see them.