ESRB
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a non-profit self-regulatory major rating organization in the United States, it enforces ratings, advertising guidelines and helps ensure online privacy practices for the software industry, most notably video games.
It uses a series of symbols for its ratings (EC, E, E10+, T, M, AO, RP) as well as a brief description of the content involved (e.g. "Strong Language").
Rating Symbols
They are a black-and-white rectangular logo with the rating's name and a prominent codification of the rating in few alphanumeric characters. The ESRB describes them as follows:[1]
Early Childhood (EC): Have content that may be suitable for ages 3 and older. Contains no material that parents would find inappropriate.
Everyone (E): Have content that may be suitable for ages 6 and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.
Everyone 10+ (E10+): Have content that may be suitable for ages 10 and older. Titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes.
Teen (T): Have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language.
Mature (M): Have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
Adults Only (AO): Have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.
Rating Pending (RP): Have been submitted to the ESRB and are awaiting final rating. (This symbol appears only in advertising prior to a game's release.)
Additionally, there's the no longer used Kids to Adults (K-A) rating that was replaced by the Everyone (E) mentioned above.
