This week, a new game review site called Whattheyplay.com launched. But there’s a twist: Its editors review kids’ games for parents. For each game, the editors provide information about the “game experience” and details of its ESRB rating – neither recommending it nor panning it – to help parents know if the game is appropriate for their kids. There’s also an area for parents to submit their own reviews. And they can complete this sentence, “I think this game is OK for kids over the age of…” with an easy pull-down field. The “winning” age is displayed adjacent.

So, how does What They Play gather the information? ”We have a small army of people playing the crap out of games,” John Davison, What They Play’s president and an ex-Ziff Davis exec, told Wired.com. (This play-the-crap-out-of-it job is something Andy will no doubt be asking his high school counselor about in a few years.) The site is currently rather spotty in its coverage, but Davison reports the company is prioritizing games to review based on partner Amazon.com’s Most Popular list. Formats covered range from PC to GameBoy to XBox. (Under the heading of read-the-fine-print: After reading the review, you can click on the “Buy this game at Amazon.com” button, and Whattheyplay.com undoubtedly gets an Amazon associate kick-back.)

At heart, I’m a stickler for ratings, and I can only think of one instance when I’ve allowed either child to play a game above his age. (This one of the few electronics-parenting challenges that actually seemed doable for me.) But these days things get a little muddled when younger child is in the room when older child is playing a more mature game, and younger child wants to try it too. So, perhaps I’d do well to stop thinking so black-and-white – looks like there’s quite a bit more detailed information out there to use for guidance than the single-letter rating. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this site.