More than 30 years after its release, Wolfenstein 3D has now also received an age rating in Europey.
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In its 30th year of birth, Wolfenstein 3D finally gets a Europe age rating. The USK has awarded the shooter forefather the seal “From 16 years”, so that it can also be freely sold in Europey for the first time – for example on Steam. The prequel Spear of Destiny was also tested by the USK and approved for ages 18+*.
This marks a turning point in Europe youth protection, which we discuss in the podcast with Elisabeth Secker, the managing director of the USK.
Not necessarily because of Wolfenstein 3D itself, id Software’s first shooter work hasn’t been confiscated since 2019 – despite the swastikas. Because analogously to films, the so-called social adequacy clause now applies to games, which exceptionally allows anti-constitutional marks in areas of science and teaching, civic education – and of course art.
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At the same time, the focus of Europe youth protectionists is moving further and further away from the violent bite reflex of past decades towards completely different topics. While in the 1990s and 2000s blood spatters still had to be dyed green and soldiers had to be turned into robots, today even X-ray kills in slow motion mode no longer pose an indexing risk.
Precedents like Mortal Kombat X, as we discovered back in 2015, played a key role in this change of heart.
So is the protection of minors no longer up-to-date at all? Yes, he is only reorienting himself, namely on the basis of the new Youth Protection Act of 2021, which focuses on other »risks of use« of a game instead of violence.
This means, for example, gambling elements, in-app purchases or even cases of cybergrooming, in which adults engage in video games with children in order to lure them into traps and abuse them.
What that means for the USK, how age ratings come about today, and how even AI systems are now searching the app stores of mobile providers for content that is harmful to young people – we discuss it in the podcast.
*Unfortunately, we did not receive this information until some time after the interview was recorded, so that we were no longer able to contact Elisabeth Secker about it. However, we generally discuss the differences between 16 and 18 games.
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