The U.S. video game industry, under criticism for playing a role in the culture of gun violence, announced on Monday it will launch a nationwide education campaign on parental controls, almost three months after the December mass shooting in Connecticut.

The new campaign is aimed at helping parents know more about the tools and information available and thus better manage the entertainment choices for their families, said the Entertainment Software Association.

The campaign will be focused on a new series of public service announcements encouraging parents to review the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) video game ratings and make better use of the existing parental controls offered within video game consoles.

The new series of public service announcements will be featured on video game platforms, video game-specific web sites, industry news and fan discussion sites and online stores. The industry group will also encourage broadcasters to run the series on local channels and distribute them to retailers for use.

"This campaign will connect with consumers in an immediate and sustained way in addition to the traditional mechanisms over TV outlets," Michael Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, said in a statement.

"Our industry has a long-standing, high-quality track record of empowering parents," he said.

According to the industry group, the video game industry has more than 300 million interactions every month with consumers through online storefronts and video game play. About half of American homes have at least one video game console, and every console has password-protected parental controls that allow parents to limit their children's video game use.

Some lawmakers applauded the industry's latest move.

"No one knows better than parents when it comes to making decisions about which games their children should and should not play," said Republican Senator John Thune, "the video game industry makes games for people of all ages, but that doesn't mean all games are appropriate for everyone."

"The more parents know about the wealth of dynamic tools the video game industry has developed for monitoring game play, the more empowered they will be to make informed decisions about which video games are appropriate for their family," said Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The video game industry has been under pressure from both gun- control advocates, lawmakers and the National Rifle Association, the country's largest gun lobby group, for producing violent content and fueling the gun violence culture, in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre in Connecticut.

The tragedy that killed 20 children and six adults last December has renewed a nationwide debate over gun violence and gun control efforts.

The film and television industries also announced last month about launching a nationwide multimedia campaign to educate parents about tools that can help them manage the entertainment content.