yes, I would say they are necessary. More so than movies, I think, due to the interactivity and overall engrossment that the child will get from a video game. Seeing is one thing, seeing and doing in a video game is another step further.

What I do also wonder though is that the current generation of parents will only have grown up with relatively tame vidoe games, and as such could possibly underestimate some of the more "vivid" titles that are out there now (GTA, Manhunt etc). This will change as the current crop of teenysomething gamers evolve into parents (heaven help us) and have a better understanding of content. The age classification laws need to be enforced more strongly against vendors AND parents in my opinion for video games. I say this as a parent of a 12 year old whose friends all have GTA4 and he is desperate for it. He doesnt have it, but I have no doubt has played it at friends...

There should also be a ban on postal order transactions for these games over the Internet also, but lord only knows how this would be enforced.

Must be getting old, cant believe I am in favour of some form of censorship :(

Anomalies to the system which need to be looked at before it can be applied in a clear manner.

For example:

Max Payne 2...A rating of 15 (violence strong language abounds)

Doom 3...A rating of 18 (presumably for it's "scare factor" as it contains less strong language.

FEAR....Same as Doom, I presume for the same reasons.

Crysis: ....Only 16, stronger language and "Scare Factor"

And I could mention many more. Seems that different individuals or groups who evaluate these games seem to have very different ideas on what boundaries to set.

Standardisation needs to be applied so that shop's the games industry and the genera; public have a system that is consistent.