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Most Children Able To Buy M-Rated Games
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the FTC report on children buying potentially inappropriate adult-rated games. According to the survey, "69 percent of the teenage shoppers were able to buy M-rated games", but this figure is down from 85 percent in 2000 and 78 percent in 2001. However, only 27 percent of stores where the games were bought had "signs, posters, or other information to inform customers about the rating system or the seller's policy on rating enforcement", and only 24 percent asked the 13-to-16 year old child's age, in this "mystery shopper" study funded by The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
We're not talking about a 5$ porn mag or a 10$ package of cigarrettes. We're talking about $30-$80 of video game. Now, maybe the laws are slightly different in the US, but in Canada, most places don't let people work a wage job legally until 16. So if you're under 16, and you walk into a video game store to buy Grand Theft Auto, where did you get that money from?
That's right! The same people who should have educated that person (and possibly be supervising that person) on what is appropriate to buy. The manager of a local video game store once said to me that if a 5 year old walks in with 80$ to buy GTA: Vice City, he has no problem selling it to the kid because there's no where else that child would've gotten the money. Video game stores are not baby sitters. If the parent is with the kid, the will remind them that the title's M-rated, but they're not going to brow beat them or take away their right to raise their children any way they want to.
Which is what this really is about. You can raise your child any way you want to, it just so happens that most people expect that they won't have to raise their children because they can use video games as babysitting tools; thus they give them money and send them off to the video game store without supervision. Whose fault is that? Not the video game store!
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Stores shouldn't hold any responsibility so long as they're not selling M-rated products directly to kids. All the products are labeled with ratings and reasons why they're rated as such, purchasing the product implies that you accept the rating and are willing to make sure your kid stays on the straight and narrow. It's sad because these same parents who let their kids' game consoles do the babysitting will be the ones at the PTA meetings screaming about how kids are out of control because of exposure to media.
It's sad because these same parents who let their kids' game consoles do the babysitting will be the ones at the PTA meetings screaming about how kids are out of control because of exposure to media.
Actually, it won't be that way because the parents that let consoles do the babysitting aren't interested enough in their children's lives to show up at a PTA meeting. Parents that care are the ones screaming about media exposure because they know that no one is standing up for the kids whose parents could care less.