NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Confused about the ratings systems to determine which television shows, films and videogames are acceptable for children? You're not alone.

A new survey showed that many parents in the United States don't use the ratings schemes to decide what their children can watch or play because they don't understand them.
Nearly three-quarters of the 2,392 parents surveyed by Harris Interactive said they could not comprehend videogame ratings, 47 percent found TV ratings confusing and 15 percent couldn't make sense of movie ratings.
""People get the movie ratings. They've been around for 40-odd years now and people know what they mean,"" said Regina Corso, the director of the Harris polling division.
""But when it comes to the other two ratings the knowledge level is not there yet,"" she added.
Corso believes one reason for the confusion could be the lack of a universal rating system. When asked if people would support one system for all types of media, including music, over half of people questioned said yes.
""Maybe the media industries should be working together to make it easier for parents to know what's happening for their children,"" Corso said in an interview.
The poll showed that one third of parents regularly use TV ratings, 47 percent found ratings useful all or most of the time to decide whether their children can watch a movie but the numbers dropped to 30 percent for videogames.
According to the statistics by Harris and the National Institute on Media and the Family, nine out of 10 kids aged 8 to 16 play videogames in their homes. The industry is coming under increased scrutiny because of the level of violence in videogames.
The poll also found that only three in 10 parents said they argue with their children about playing videogames.
""Is it because they've just laid down the law and that's it or are they not arguing because their kids are just playing what they want? That we don't have an answer to,"" Corso said.