It’s an annual thing with the attorneys general of most states — asking consumers on the eve of the holiday shopping season to exercise caution before plunking down their shrinking dollars at the check-out counter or online.

This year, Missouri’s attorney general — and soon to be its governor — Jeremiah “Jay” Nixon is directing his message at parents who want to buy their children video games. He’s telling them specifically to pay attention to game ratings, so as to avoid a shocking revelation after the presents are unwrapped on Christmas morning.

For those of you who were not aware, game ratings appear as one of six letter symbols in a black-and-white label on the lower right-hand corner of each game box. They’re handed out by the Entertainment Software Rating Board a nonprofit regulatory group established in 1994. The six categories of game ratings assigned by the ESRB are:

EC (Early Childhood) — Suitable for ages 3 and older
E (Everyone) — Suitable for ages 6 and older
T (Teen) — Players must be at least age 13
M (Mature) — Players must be at least age 17
A (Adult) — For players age 18 and older

Usually, the label includes why the game deserves that rating, whether for profanity, violence, sexual themes, etc. Some games do not have labels, however, because the content lacks anything deemed offensive.

Often, parents miss seeing these labels because they’re not dialed in to their children’s lifestyles, they don’t play games themselves and were unaware such ratings existed, or they’re rushed while shopping and just want to get their packages in the car and home, dear God, before the traffic around the malls turns to gridlock.

So, Nixon advises slowing down and taking a moment to search for the ESRB label before buying. “Shoppers need to make sure they understand what’s in the games their kids will be playing, just as they know what movies they see and books they read,” a statement issued from Nixon’s office said.

Better still, parents should visit the ESRB website and check the ratings of games before shopping. ESRB.com recently added a “Search for Game Ratings” feature on its home page where visitors can type in a game’s name or publisher and get a pop-up window that summarizes the game’s content.