Circlia Media Rating Board

Circlia Media Rating Board (shortened often to CMRB) is the content rating board of Circlia. It has been established in 1989 to prevent minors from renting pornographic movies. The board was established for television in 1995 and one year later for video games after the national success of Mortal Kombat.

Ratings
General programming, like news and sports programs are not rated. The ratings are generally displayed at the bottom right corner. Additional graphics and animations can be added to the ratings as long as they don't overly modify the ratings.

Current ratings

 * AA (All Ages): As the name may suggest, the content can be enjoyed by everyone regardless of age.
 * 10+ (Ages 10 and up): The content might be innapropriate or might not make sense to viewers under the age of 10.
 * 12+ (Ages 12 and up): The content might be innapropriate or might not make sense to viewers under the age of 12.
 * 14+ (Ages 14 and up): The content might be innapropriate to viewers under the age of 14.
 * 16+ (Ages 16 and up): The content might be innapropriate to viewers under the age of 16.
 * 18+ (Ages 18 and up): The content in question is only suitable to viewers over the age of 18 or adults. Overly sexual or pornographic movies often get this rating.

Discontinued ratings

 * ER (Especially Reccomended): This rating is given to educational or informational programming that's especially reccomended for children and teenagers, hence the name. It was discontinued in 2006 as it didn't have much of a purpose.

Criticism
The ratings were at first judged in their first unveiling. Many people in the congress felt that there wasn't a need for a ratings board, and if minors rented adult movies at all, they cashiers would simply reject the purchase. However, after the board was introduced to television, the people in the congress "made them eat their own words".

The system is also criticized for being "too light". The Nintendo DS game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, for example, was originally rated 10+, but was changed to 12+ after criticism from parental groups. Others felt that the system was "too strong" and gave games like entries in the Halo franchise a 16+ rating, whereas the public felt that "they barely even deserve a 14+ rating"

Lawsuit
In 2004, the Brazilian government sued the Circlian government for 1 million dollars for alleged copying of their Classificação Indicativa ratings, which have been in use since 1990. Some arguements were used against the Brazilian government, but most were targeted against the Circlian government. The Circlian government won the lawsuit, and was allowed to use the designs under permission from the Brazilian government.