This is a tricky issue, here. In theory, it's a good idea. Unfortunately, what the ESRB is accomplishing isn't much. You see, congress, the FTC and even many parents attempt to put the blame of violence on the part of minors on the entertainment industries, instead of on the parents, or the scoiety. I'll say this: If those games really made me kill, I'd have killed people in the dozens by now. But I haven't. Meanwhile, a kid might play the same games as I have, for just as long, and by chance, go and kill his classmates. Whatever happened to kids just killing for the same reasons adults do? Nobody looks to blame an entire industry when a 50 year-old man kills his parents, the neighbors on all sides of him, the milkman, the mailman, the garbageman, half his co-workers, the man that runs the ice cream shop, and Dr. Laura (I wish). He might have played Doom last week, let the entire world know about it, and I'd bet you any amount of money that it wouldn't be brought up when the media pricks say, "Why did he do this? For what reason was he so mad? Let the healing process begin..." Kids are not that easily influenced.
But I've participated in discussions in class, and some kid said, "I'll tell you how kids are influenced. Put some 5 year olds in a room, and put on a Bruce Lee or a Jackie Chan movie. When it's over they'll be kicking and puncing and screaming, 'HI-YAAAAA!'" To which I replied, "True, but martial arts and murder are two completely dissimilar acts, so much so that even a 5 year old could recognize the difference."
This could relate to the Joe Camel allegations. People were whining that Joe Camel influenced their children to start smoking. Yet when their husbands started to smoke, they looked for no explanation for it. They didn't blame the beach babes in the commercials. So why doesn't the same apply to adults? And those commercial about THE TRUTH. Please. Leave me alone.
Maybe it's because I'm such a cynic, but these people who complain about violence in video game shouldn't be doing so. I don't like the society of parents in America, always looking for a cause, something that, "corrupted," their, "perfect little angel/prince." It's repulsive. So I say give the boot to the ESRB, tell them, "Better luck next time," and let people take some of their own friggin' responsibility.