What counts as 18+?

Not sure if this is the right board for it, but what specifically counts as 18+?

That entirely depends on the country, and the media. Videogames for example, have different ratings than movies.

Doesn't it say something on the rating system? But I guess extreme violence, gore, drugs in certain cases etc. Think Its pretty hard to set an age restriction myself since all ppl experience a lot of things differently, but I guess those are some that counts as 18+ movies and games.

My guess is if it is content that you would require an R rating for (MPAA movie ratings system), then it falls under 18+.  This includes, but is not limited to:

- Sex scenes

- Drug use

- Graphic violence (i.e. body parts, blood, etc)

- Strong language (swear words, etc)

- Some controversial topics might fall under this (for example: non-heterosexual romantic relationships might fall under this)

Basically, if it's the kind of topic parents would be very upset if their kids saw it, you're safest labeling the content 18+.

The questions is always depending on the country as Celianna has already said.


There are countries where it's considered pornographic if a woman shows her face, and there are others where you could see people walking around topless or nude without any problems.


@Evalis:


To get a comprehensive answer, you need to specify where you want that to be considered. Do you want to know what counts as 18+ on this board, or in your country, or where?

Yes, it really depends. Actually, it is not just graphic violence, but how such violence is used and presented in story and gameplay.

For instance, is violence, especially selfjustice, as a "problem solver" presented in all elements of the game, is violence against humans or human-like figures presented, is violence trivialized, is it needed to kill npc to win/continue the game etc.

Additionally some things are not even legally allowed to be shown. This differs from country to country. For instance, germany has a special agency, the federal department for media harmful to young persons, that even prohibits games from being advertised, searched at in search machines like google or openly sold. What falls under that? e.g. glamorizing war, racial hatred, instructions how to do specific criminal actions etc.

Perhaps citing an example would help: This is for a video game. This board.. and I guess.. according to ESRB would be the relevant factors I am looking for. There is a brief scene (no pictures) where the player overhears the 'act'. Squeeky bed noises and the 'oh god' thing. Would any of those things need to be ommited to keep it under said rating. The scene is lightly important to how the character interacts with other women, but it wouldn't hurt too much if it was removed.

There's another darker scene later in the game (haven't gotten to that point) that also has no pictures, and is even less clear, but to a mature audience holds significant meaning.. I suppose I am asking is.. sexual suggestion (without graphics) is okay? 

In my country, they rate movies 18+ for the reasons whitesphere mentioned.

In addition to that, they still censor every scene related until you have no idea what's going on in the story.

The scenes you are describing falls under 18+ if you were in my country.

It would be safer for you to omit it if you do not want to rate your game 18+.

I think Susan is right.  When ratings are concerned, anything even hinting at sexuality is highly likely to get the 18+ rating, even more so than overt violence (at least in the US).  There's a MAD Magazine article which makes fun of this hypocrisy:

"I got our latest film from X to R"  (X is roughly equivalent to 18+ and is usually used by pornos)

"Great!  How'd you do it?"

"Remember the steamy sex scene?"

"Yeah!  Do I!"

"Well, now he shoots her."

To be safe, check on the rules and regulations of your country.  I think Europe has a more sane view on this and treats graphic violence as, if not more, damaging than a sexual act.

If you're referring to a game, here's ESRB's 18+ 

 

ADULTS ONLY

Content suitable only for adults ages 18 and up.

May include prolonged scenes of intense violence, graphic sexual content and/or gambling with real currency.

• Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons and depictions of human injury and death
• Strong Sexual Content - Explicit and/or frequent depictions of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity
• Real Gambling - Player can gamble, including betting or wagering real cash or currency

Even hinting at sexuality is 18+ worthy in the US? Weird. I would categorize that as 12 or 14+ ;)

Evalis, you said, both scenes have no pictures, only sounds or description of the act. Depending on how detailed/graphic that description and the sounds are, I would say it is maybe 16+, if you want to be very strict, but no way near 18+ in my opinion. Best you could do, I think, is to write a warning at the beginning of your game or in your game description. But I would not omit the scenes.

Well Sims has the "stuff like a bed moving and noises" and that game is only rated T (except in the someplace I forget where it's rated M for that :p )It all depends where you are and what's in it, it depends what you see. Sounds around 14-ish maybe?

In Russia, among other countries, it is literally illegal to depict gay and lesbian relationships (of the "these two men/these two women are married" variety of depictions) in children's stories.  This is a large part of the reason that children's shows made elsewhere don't make those relationships canon.

I think that first scene as you describe it wouldn't be M (which is actually 17+, 18+ is AO and very rarely given to a game, because most stores won't carry them) in the US, probably teen. It's hard to say on the second scene without seeing it.

Keep in mind RMW is 13+ though.

But hey, this is rated L (read: safe for all ages) here in Brazil:

Nice dancing. It looks like it's either a commercial or a festive dance.

It would not be a question of contents vs age anymore in this case from where I come from.

This would be outright banned in my country.

Man.. wish I grew up in brazil.. Anyway after seeing the posts, I think it should be okay. Just for reference though, the second scene, you go back to save someone that tried to rob you (it's complicated) and if you choose to take a certain character with you (the easy route) she says that he has to die, but she can probably have some fun before hand. She tells you to scram and if you leave you suffer some psych damage, if you try to stop her and lose, your character is traumatized. Although.. perhaps I should just have the player die rather than let that happen..

Hmm...something I want to clarify.

What would "Barbie doll nudity" fall under?

Surely 18+ for "Barbie doll nudity" is absurd. But is it okay in 13+? I recall many, many T-rated video games with "barbie doll nudity" ...so I want to assume the same is true for RPG Maker? But I won't assume. I want to know for sure.

I'm going by Canada and US standards here.

Considering what passes for weeknight American television, I really don't think you have much to worry about.  Characters talk about sex all the time in sitcoms and even imply it will or it already happened by showing the characters in bed together.  Even things like the "squeaky bed" have made it into some shows.

Judging by games released here, typically the ESRB rating follows like this:

Teen - Blood, violence, suggestive themes, and some strong language.  Unless it's a kiddy game or doesn't fit into the following categories, most games with any kind of violence ends up here.

Mature - Extreme violence, sexual content, and strong use of profanity.  GTA, CoD, every other FPS or open-world game.  These games make up majority of the Playstation and Xbox's western library and some even get away with showing full frontal nudity.

Adults Only (18+) - Overly excessive violence and graphic display of sex.  You typically only find porn/hentai games in here.

This makes me think of Xenogears with its T-rating and weird ending.

My parents wouldn't let me watch Hellraiser when I was 7, everything else was ok. Friday the 13, Nightmare on Elmstreet, Puppetmaster, The Howling, TONS of movies that most kids have no contact with. Hell, my parents bought me Doom on SNES when I was in 3rd grade :p

Then there was my cousin. Who hadn't seen a PG movie until he was a teenager. 

In my country, we get really butthurt about the naked human form, which really bothers me. Especially when I see media from the rest of the world. They're just boobs, people! Come on! I would venture the guess that most of us here have been nurtured by boobs at one point in our lives. 

As an aside, it turn's out children who view violent television may be more susceptible to advertisements...