Bill Proposed To Allow MTRCB To Regulate Video Games
A bill was proposed to extend the powers of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to rate video games in terms of the age of their audience.
Proposed by Valenzuela congressman Sherwin Gatchalian, House Bill 4947, also known as Video Game and Outdoor Media Regulation Act, will allow the MTRCB to classify video games based on age-appropriateness. This is in addition to House Bill 4790, which Gatchalian also filed in relation to the banning of DotA in Barangay Salawag, Cavite.
As a member of the house committee on trade industry, Gatchalian says that the MTRCB is lagging behind other media regulators abroad, who have already included video games in their monitoring list since the late 1990s.
“The MTRCB should upgrade since it was established before the advent of video games,” Gatchalian said.
Under HB4749, five video games experts will be added to the current 30 members of MTRCB to execute the extended functions allowed by the bill.
These experts’ function will be similar to the current scenario in the movie and television industry wherein they will classify the video games as “Adults only”, “Parental guidance suggested”, “ Not for public viewing”, and ”For general consumption”.
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
