Guest: Jim Steyer - CommonSenseMedia
Host: Lisa - PodTech

Go to CommonSenseMedia.org.

Lisa - PodTech
Boy, it was literally a mad dash at a lot of electronic stores across the Country, customers scrambled for Sony's PlayStation 3 and the latest hot product in the technology world, but what should parents know, before spending hundreds of dollars on a gift such as this? Our Media expert Jim Steyer is here with some advice. Good morning.

Jim Steyer - CommonSenseMedia.org
Hi, Lisa.

Lisa - PodTech
Well, first we wanted to talk about that YouTube video we just saw, that was just shot at UCLA from somebody's cell phone, and you're actually discussing with YouTube, how did you rate videos like that?

Jim Steyer - CommonSenseMedia.org
Yeah, that's right Lisa. That's actually -- and we're talking about the video game stuff, in fact. But, it's one of the most challenging things now that we have sites like YouTube where people can load their own user generated content basically, make it available as we just saw in that video. How do you rate that? So that, my eight year won't go on and see something like that or __0:41, It's a really interesting challenge from a media stand point, and so, I think it's something we'll be talking about on this show in months to come. But, how do you -- as we grow more and more user generated content, how do we rate that in a way, so that you can protect kids?

Lisa - PodTech
Absolutely.

Jim Steyer - CommonSenseMedia.org
It's a really interesting challenge and I think that people at YouTube, Google, etcetera will be very open to figuring this out.

Lisa - PodTech
Alright, let's talk about PlayStation 3, because people camped out for two days; some people are paying $3000 per game. Is it worth it?

Jim Steyer - CommonSenseMedia.org
Well, here is the thing. The PlayStation 3 is this high end model, that's just coming out -- delayed by quite some time and you're right there are things on eBay and across the Internet, where people are -- not only do we see people camped out in line for this, but many of these people are camped out in line so that they can then resell them on eBay for a high price. It's a very high end machine, with very great graphics. As these video game machines become more and more graphically designed, they can do incredible graphics, but they're very expensive, this is a very expensive machine and there are other several other machines out there, in addition to the PlayStation 3 that are actually now very popular from a kids and family perspective. Nintendo is coming out also with a new machine called 'The Wii', and that specialize this new feature on that, is a controller that allows you to actually stimulate the actions so, if you're playing say a baseball game you actually get the feel of swinging the bat or if it's a boxing game, you get the punch like you do in a boxing match. So, you have a big crowded Christmas when it comes to the new video game machines.

Lisa - PodTech
Do you think it's going to hurt the Nintendo's Wii; that there -- it's coming out today, and its two days after the whole rush at the PlayStation 3. Do you think that's going hurt, at all?

Jim Steyer - CommonSenseMedia.org
I don't, I don't really think so, Lisa. But, again at CommonSenseMedia we don't actually rate the machines, we just tell you what's in them. The PS3 is a very high graphic, it's really for the experienced gamers who want the latest in power. You have to also hook it up to HDTV, you need high definition television, to get the real benefits from the graphics that it allows. The Wii is actually aimed more at a family audience, it's about half the price, I think at retail and again it's aimed -- it's just a game machine. If you look at PlayStation 3 and even Xbox 360 which is the other big machine out there, that's by Microsoft, it came out about a year ago, it's very popular as well. They aim at -- they have multiple features, that allow you to use it for downloads and online gaming. Whereas, The Wii is pretty much just a game machine and I think what we're going to see is that it depends on, what kind of gaming you want. But the thing is as a parent, the thing you need to remember is, boys in particular love video games, they're addicting with these new machines, they'll continue to be addicting if not more so, so you got to set.