Exeter mom Sharon Walsh bought a video game for her child. It looked innocent enough. It had bunnies, little pigs and other animals.

She thought the game was rated “E for everyone” — meaning it was suitable for smaller children. But then one character, a bunny, blew up a pig. Other bunnies exploded, too.

“I really don’t like blowing up anyone, even if it’s a cartoon, and it is [supposed to be] rated E,” Walsh says. “Often times we will see them playing it for a few minutes, and then we will come back to it and we see other things. Do the games ever get a little worse as they go through levels?”

And what exactly does “E for Everyone” mean?

It’s a question among several that Walsh and many other mothers in the Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School District wanted a little more information on, especially since the holiday shopping season is upon us.

To that end, last week the district Parents Teachers Association hosted a video-game workshop at Metcalf Elementary School to learn about the rating system. The PTA invited representatives from local GameStop shops and game-maker Nintendo.

“I don’t think people realize what is in these games. Our kids ask for things and we buy them,” said Walsh said. “Just as you wouldn’t take them to movie that is inappropriate . . . you really need to look into it. They are nothing to laugh at. Some things in there are inappropriate. We wanted to be able to give our parents some guidance.”

Video games, it turns out, are regulated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, a self-regulatory body established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association. The nonprofit assigns computer and video game content ratings and enforce industry-adopted advertising guidelines.

Every game is played and rated before it’s put on the shelves, said Gary Silvers, district manager for GameStop in Rhode Island. The ratings are listed on the front and back of the packaging, and on the game cartridge. Whether a game is rated E or M for Mature, the rating is consistent throughout the game.

“There is this thing called the owner’s manual,” Silvers quipped with parents at the workshop. “Whatever machine you have, you can set whatever kind of parental controls. The best way to educate yourself is to go into a GameStop and talk to an associate or the management. And based on what you are already comfortable exposing them to; what television shows they’ve seen, or movies they’ve seen, we can offer insight into how appropriate that game is for that audience.”

The rating system begins with early childhood games, appropriately called EC. There are two versions of E for Everyone; one for children 6 and older, which has mild violence, and an E 10+, for 10 and older. Games with that rating may have cartoon fantasy, mild violence and language and suggestive themes.

The next category is T for Teen, for 13 and up, with violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, simulated gambling, or strong language. There are also ratings M for mature and A for Adults only. There is also a rating called RP, which mean the rating is pending, but the product is for sale.

More information about the seven-point rating system is at www.esrb.com.

Parents at the meeting agreed that they have to be careful about what their children are exposed to.

“We have the same challenges,” said Kimberly Johnson, another PTA mother, with two boys, ages 8 and 10. “The boys, they have kind of given up their trucks and kind of given up their Legos. This is something that is very alluring to them. But when they start doing some crazy things and have that crude humor, you think maybe they took that too far.”

Kerrie Larisa, who has two young children, just wanted to understand the ratings system.

“My kids have the DS Lite,” Larisa said. “I find it hard to monitor because it’s a small system. You have to literally stand over them.

“I wanted to know more about the ratings, and which games to buy, so I don’t have to stand over them.”