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Circuit City To Check IDs For 'Mature' Games

Posted by timothy on from the your-papers-please? dept.

CitizenC writes: "This Associated Press story by way of Yahoo states that starting next month, Circuit City will no longer sell 'Mature' rated games to children under 17 years of age at its stores without a parent being around. They will also begin to check ID's for young people who purchase 'M' rated games." Please check your responsibility at the door and put this helmet on, too.

8 of 15 comments (clear)

  1. Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Hopefully this will minimize the number of whiny kids playing multiplayer games.

  2. Why just check IDs? by human+bean · · Score: 3

    if most of these games are networked first person shooters, shouldn't they be checking egos instead?

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    *whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"

  3. Re:Not so bad... by RareHeintz · · Score: 2
    Did you read the article, or even the /. blurb at the top of the page? Since details seem to have escaped you, allow me to quote:

    Circuit City will no longer sell 'Mature' rated games to children under 17 years of age at its stores without a parent being around.
    So, it sounds to me like Circuit City is cooperating with parents to provide the monitoring you seem to like. Exactly how you could interpret this as some sort of corporate statist paternalism is unclear; they are defaulting to not selling violent games to the kiddies, and explicitly allowing parents to override that default at will. I don't see where it disallows a parent from exercising any sort of right.

    In the future: Read before posting.

    OK,
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  4. Re:Not so bad... by RareHeintz · · Score: 2
    Right... So toddlers should be allowed to drive cars? Thirteen-year-olds should have access to all the booze they want? Parents should have no hand in governing their children's media consumption?

    That's nothing short of deranged. A child that was allowed to "grow and develop freely", entirely without the socializing influence of parents and other members of family and society would not be a civilized human, but an animal.

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  5. Re:Not so bad... by RareHeintz · · Score: 2
    You're not insane; the current practice of trying children as adults is (though I'd support dropping the criminal definition of "adult" as low as 16 years of age).

    However, treating children as adults in other inappropriate ways won't fix that. And the kids who want to mostly see R-rated flicks and smoke cigs anyway.

    OK,
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  6. Not so bad... by RareHeintz · · Score: 4
    I'm sure that game makers aren't thrilled about this, and I'm sure Circuit City can expect to get some serious flak or lose preferential wholesale pricing from major game distributors, but really, is this so awful?

    Over and over on /., we keep hearing the classic argument against censorship "for the children": Parents should be the ones responsible for monitoring the media consumption of minors in the household. That would be a Good Thing. This helps make that happen. Even better, the government isn't involved.

    How is this worse than carding people for an "R"-rated movie? Or carding those who buy cigs or booze? Few sane people argue that minors should enjoy all the rights and privileges of adult citizens, and this seems like a sane extension of that.

    OK,
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  7. Catch by ez76 · · Score: 5

    Sources familiar with the policy note that ID checks will only be necessary for customers who opt not to purchase the companion $29.95 Extended Service Plan for their new game purchases.

  8. On the upside... by kypper · · Score: 2

    Some of us straight-edges who don't smoke, drink, or buy porn can finally use our IDs!