User:Eliotmiz/sandbox

=Eliot Mizrachi= In addition to assigning ratings the ESRB also enforces guidelines that have been adopted by the video game industry in order to ensure responsible advertising and marketing practices. These include ensuring that game packaging and advertisements properly display rating information and restricting where ads for T-, M- and AO-rated games can appear. This allows the ESRB to restrict video game advertising "to consumers for whom the product is not rated as appropriate." The industry's enforcement of advertising and marketing guidelines led the Federal Trade Commission to recognize ESRB as having "the strongest self-regulatory code" of all entertainment sectors in its 2009 Report to Congress.

Video game publishers agree to abide by these guidelines when they receive a rating from the ESRB, and this agreement empowers ESRB to impose fines and other sanctions in cases where a violation of these guidelines has occurred. While ESRB guidelines technically apply only to the companies that submit their products to be rated, online retailers such as Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network, and the Wii Shop Channel ban minors from downloading game demos or trailers for games rated Mature or Rating Pending.