Jo Twist is CEO of UKIE, the association for UK interactive entertainment.

We all know how awesome games are. What's more, I can tell you too that MPs and policy makers finally understand how great games are too.

They want to know more about them – they see their kids and grandchildren playing all the time, after all. But they also understand that games aren't just for kids, and they they see our industry as the potential vanguard of a digital economy that will generate huge economic growth when we get the economics and skills right.

We are innovative, creative, data rich and the new form of digital manufacturing – as well as an established form of entertainment.

But, whether we like it or not – and perhaps it's because of our industry's growing popularity – games are still very often under scrutiny, from the mainstream media in particular, which seem to be behind the curve when it comes to the great story we have to tell.

It's a fair cop

At UKIE we work really hard to tell the positive stories about our industry when unfair accusations arise.

Games, we say, are a mature medium, and just like films, music and books, they sometimes contain adult content designed specifically for more mature audiences.

Sometimes, though, the criticism is justified. When this happens, the games industry has a strong track record of admitting when its content or marketing methods are inappropriate. Think of how Boyfriend Maker was reported, for instance, or the retraction of the recent Hitman social media campaign.

And as a sector we also have a good track record of trailblazing and adopting responsible consumer measures, before having rules and regulations imposed on us. Our industry led the call for PEGI, but PEGI legally only covers boxed products and their digital equivalents sold at retail.

There is no law, in the UK or overseas, that covers age ratings of games sold on mobile devices. Yet.

In practice, this lack of regulation in the mobile space does not mean a total absence of guidance, or an irresponsible attitude, and there are systems in place to inform players about games on mobile.

Windows Phone, for example, has been the first to sign up and use the PEGI Express ratings system designed for mobile platforms. Meanwhile, the Apple and Android stores have their own in-house approvals and guidance systems.

Question time

So while players – or indeed parents of kids who want to play mobile games – can use these systems to learn more about the game little JoJo wants to play, there are still questions to be answered.

Is the guidance consistent and easy for developers to provide? Are cultural sensitivities taken into account with each age rating? Are we giving consumers enough information about whether this game tracks you via GPS, stores personal information about you, or allows free chat?

Do we, as an industry that cares about getting as many of our great games to people as possible, need to be doing more to take the lead on some of the questions that need answering?

At UKIE we're already very active in the political debates taking place in the UK and in Europe around what role governments can have in protecting consumers from inappropriate online content.

We want the process for developers and publishers to be as friction free as possible, but we need to be sure that we really think we're doing everything we can do give the right guidance and conference to consumers.

Government will, to a certain degree, be chasing the shadows posed by more sophisticated audiences, ever-improving technology and an inability to introduce rules that can be effectively applied for all digital savvy people.

Them's the breaks

There is no silver bullet when it comes to consumer protection – the only realistic way of making sure children enjoy the right games for them is through a combination of parental responsibility, awareness about games and an industry commitment to provide the tools to help parents understand what's in a game.

And if we want to keep this self-regulatory approach – an approach that keeps us agile and friction free – then we need to be able to prove to government that we can do this ourselves.

In short, if we want to continue to show how mature we are as an industry, we have to continue to show how much we care about these issues and continue to evolve the way we help players to make informed choices.

Government published the draft tax relief legislation this month and it looks promising for businesses of all sizes creating games on all platforms. The new scheme will not have a minimum budget threshold, which is good news for those not operating at triple-A console dev budget levels.

We also spent a great deal of time educating policy makers about different business models and ways of monetising. As a result of this effort, businesses can claim back for continued, iterative development costs – something that's particularly important for mobile developers.

This is a major step for our industry and hopefully will be an incentive for new businesses as well as inward investments from multinationals.

The way forward

If that is the case, we will hopefully see more great games being produced in the UK, and a debate will be needed about what consumer safety tools and systems should look like to guide consumer choice.

Is having multiple age ratings systems across multiple global market places with different cultural sensitivities the best solution? How can we have content rating systems in place that protect children but that are also affordable and effective for games businesses?

At the PEGI Congress in Berlin last month, I heard a lot of extremely interesting discussion about these dilemmas, especially when it comes to cultural sensitivities – the conversation around nipples in The Sims was particularly bizarre.

These are important issues, and we need to get our responsibility to consumers right if we want to retake our rightful place as global leaders.

Come talk to us via Facebook, or email me your thoughts on ratings at: jo [dot] twist [at] ukie [dot] org [dot] uk.