What are the different criteria for the Age Ratings?

The content of a game may not cause any harm to any member of the chosen age category. The raters always keep in mind the youngest members of the age categories. For example, when the experts think that a game might not contain any harmful or problematic content for 12 year old children but it might frighten 12 year old children, the rating for the game will be a 15 or older.

For all ages

• The content of the game offers educational, or cultivating moral character and sentiments for children
• The content of the game has no representation of anti-societal idea distortion or profanity of religion and public morals that harm children emotionally and physically
• The content and motif of the game have no representation of obscenity, violence, or reproduction of gambling spirit that harms children at all

12+

• The content of the game has no representation of anti-societal idea, distortion or profanity of religion and public morals that would be harmful to children under 12 emotionally and physically
• The content and motif of the game has no representation of obscenity, violence, reproduction of gambling spirit that would be harmful to children under 12 (slight level of sexuality, violence, improper language(expletives), etc.)

15+

• The content of the game has no representation of anti-societal idea, distortion or profanity of religion and public morals that would be harmful to children under 15 emotionally and physically
• The content and motif of the game have no representation of obscenity, violence, speculation, etc that would be harmful to children under 15(indirect and restricted representation of sexuality, violence, improper language(expletives) and low level of reproduction of gambling spirit (arousing of passion for excessive use of gaming money, or dependence on one's luck)

18+

• The content of the game has representations of anti-societal idea, religion and public morals that would be harmful to children under 18 emotionally and physically
• The content and motif of the game have representations of obscenity, violence, speculation, etc. that would be harmful to children under 18 (direct and concrete graphical representation of sexuality, violence, improper language(expletives), reproduction of gambling spirit (existence of arousing of passion of excessive use of gaming money, or dependence on one's luck, but no real gaining or loss of one's asset).

What is the content modification notifying system?

Under 'the Game Industry Promotion Act', you have to notify GCRB or GRAC of changed or added specific contents by written document and data storage device (CD, DVD, USB, etc) within 24 hours of modifying the game contents (only for rated games/ except cases of contents that already have technical modification or improvement). When the content modification is appropriate for the age rating after inspections of GCRB or GRAC, you will get the 'notification of rating maintenance'. On the contrary, if the content modification proves to be inappropriate for your age rating (when there are remarkable changes on the user-mode or when user-account or user-information is not kept similar, etc), you will be issued with a 'Notification of Rating Renewal' and have to obtain a new rating for your game material. Every notification of results will arrive within 7 days of notification from GCRB or GRAC to the applicant.

What is a rating rejection and a rating revocation?

A rating rejection is decided by the rating board when the applied material is determined to be a speculative game, or when it comes under another law (The Criminal Law, The Speculation Control Law, etc.), due to application for a rating by false documents or data. The rating board makes a provisional rating rejection first, then gives a chance for the applicant to present a written opinion at the next rating meeting. If the applicant's opinion is accepted, a rating decision will be made. Otherwise, the rating board will make a final rating rejection decision. After resolving the problems led to the rejection, the applicant can re-apply for a rating any time. If the applicant objects to the final rejection, it may be re-discussed in the Re-classification Advisory meeting (30 days after notification of the rejection document/ with exactly the same contents as the first submitted game material). The rating revocation is decided by the rating board when the rated game material is distributed in an illegal way (determined to be a speculative game, or it comes under another law, due to application for rating by false documents and data).