DJCTQ

The DJCTQ, or Department of Justice, Rating, Titles and Qualification ( Departamento de Justiça, Classificação, Títulos e Qualificação in Portuguese) rates movies and games in Brazil. It is controlled by the Ministry of Justice ( Ministério da Justiça ).

= Movies =

The DJCTQ uses the following system:

Livre (General): This rating means that the film can be watched by anyone and doesn t have any inappropriate content.

12 anos (12 years): This film is recommended for persons with or over 12 years of age. May contain a little inappropriate language, sexual innuendo, or mild violence.

14 anos (14 years): This film is recommended for persons with or over 14 years of age. May contain inappropriate language, sexual innuendo and/or mild sex with no nudity or the act being explicit shown, violence, mention to drug use.

16 anos (16 years): This film is recommended for persons with or over 16 years of age. May contain strong language, sexual innuendo and/or mild sex with or without mild nudity, strong violence, drug use.

18 anos (18 years): This film is forbidden for people under 18 years of age. It may contain strong language, intense sex, strong nudity, strong violence, intense drug use. It is also used to rate pornographic films.

People under the minimum age indicated by the rating can watch the movie accompanied by their parents, except for pornographic films. The films are rated by trained raters and more recently, the DJCTQ makes surveys to see if the people agree or not with the rating indicated for a specific film. No parental guidance ratings are used.

= Games =

Games are rated in Brazil by the DJCTQ since October 2002. The growing game market in Brazil needed a bigger control over the countless games sold in the country every day. It was introduced by Senator José Gregori.

The United States system that was being used by some Brazilian distribuitors, from ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board), wasn t adopted for the Brazilian culture and kept the ratings in English, being not appropriate for the Portuguese language and leaving most consumers uninformed.

Between October 2002 and September 2004, the DJCTQ analized and rated over 2,1 thousand electronic games, for computer and videogame.

The game rating system looks like just the same from the movie rating system:

Livre (general)

12 anos (12 years)

14 anos (14 years)

16 anos (16 years)

18 anos (18 years)

Content descriptors are also used, similar to ESRB system. Games are rated by trained raters, and the main topics analized by the DJCTQ are sex, violence and drugs. All games released in Brazil are subject to being rated.

A database is available for those who want to search for the rating for a specific game or movie in the Internet.

= External link =

*[http://www.mj.gov.br/classificacao DJCTQ page; rated movies and games database] (in Portuguese)