Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle

Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body, abbreviated USK) is the organisation responsible for video game ratings in Germany. In Austria, it is mandatory in the state of Salzburg, while PEGI is mandatory in Vienna, however, USK, as well PEGI, is age recommendation in Turkey.

Ratings

The USK uses an age-rating system to designate whether a computer game may be publicly supplied to children and young persons. Retailers are obliged to comply with the restrictions indicated by the rating. For example, a game approved for children aged 12 and above may not be sold to a 10-year-old. Outside of business relations (e.g., parents or adult friends giving the game to a child or youth) there is no such restriction. Advertisement for games rated USK 18 or below is not restricted only if the advertisement itself has no content that is harmful to minors. The five age ratings themselves (0, 6, 12, 16 and 18) are in accordance with article 14, section 2 of Germany’s Protection of Young Persons Act (JuSchG) from 2003, inherited from article 6, section 3 of the preceding Law for the Protection of Young People in Public (JÖSchG).

Prior to the revision of the JÖSchG into the JuSchG in 2003, USK ratings were strictly advisory and weren’t applied universally across all kinds of game software. Publishers of handheld video games (a.e. Game Boy, Atari Lynx etc.) for instance, rarely submitted their titles for a rating. With the revised law, the labelling became mandatory for all game software sold at retail, and many older titles still in circulation that had not yet been rated were submitted to receive a rating retroactively.

Symbols

A series of colored symbols is used to indicate ratings. Until 2003, all the rating symbols were yellow, except for USK 18, which was red. In 2003, the symbols were redesigned to add colour coding: white for 0, yellow for 6, green for 12, blue for 16 and red for 18. The symbols were again redesigned in 2009.

Prior to 2008, the rating labels’ size were not universal and often times were the size of the thumbnail. A 2008 amendment to article 12 of the Protection of Young Persons Act introduced a minimum size requirement of 1200 square millimetres on the packaging and of 250 square millimetres on the medium (disc or cartridge) itself. The package label is always affixed to the lower left portion on the front of the packaging. Special exceptions may be granted in cases where the packaging or media happens to be exceptionally small.

Content descriptors

In January 2023, the USK began using various content descriptors alongside their age ratings. These include descriptors specifying the level of violence, horror, sexual content, profanity and drug and alcohol use.

Additional descriptors

In January 2023, the USK also introduced descriptors indicating additional features in the game, such as in-game purchases and online interaction.

Distinction from the Federal Agency for Child and Youth Protection in the Media

The Federal Agency for Child and Youth Protection in the Media (BzKJ) maintains a List of media harmful to young people (colloquially known as the “Index”). Titles that are on this list may only be sold on request to adults 18 or older, are not to be advertised in any media or put on display in retail stores. German retail stores, mail order and internet vendors tend to sell only games that do have a USK rating, due to the massive restrictions. These games are still sold from vendors outside Germany into the German market.

Since April 2003 video games that are rated by the USK are protected from the indexing process. Many publishers and developers choose to release edited versions of their games to try to receive an USK-18-rating, fearing the same negative sales impact an AO rating would have in the US, out of fear that an unrated title might be indexed. Games without an USK rating are treated like an indexed game.

Restrictions

Up through 2018, USK had refused to rate games that contained imagery of anti-constitutional groups, including Nazis, Neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan, as required by Strafgesetzbuch (German code) section 86a, effectively making them unavailable to purchase in retail channels. While Section 86a included a “social adequacy” clause that allowed such images to be used in areas like education, science, and art (including literature and film), video games were not considered as qualifying under that section USK enforced. To publish affected games in Germany, developers and publishers had to strip out and replace objectionable images. One example is ', which replaced swastikas on uniforms with a fictional symbol.

In August 2018, USK announced that the German government would relax this Section 86a restriction on video games, as long as the imagery included falls within the “social adequacy” allowance. USK evaluates how relevant imagery is used and reject games they believe fail to meet the social adequacy allowance. In 2019, the simultaneously released ' and ' were the first games allowed to depict Nazi imagery under the “social adequacy clause”. Despite being officially rated by USK, major German retailers, such as MediaMarkt, Saturn, and GameStop, refused to sell the uncensored version, offering only the separately sold German version without Nazi imagery and references.