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.

Comments

While I was in Babages

[mhlandrydotnet]

... the other day, what appeared to be a grandma was purchasing a game (sadly, I didn't see what the game was). The clerk asked who the game was for, and when the lady said it was for her grandson, the clerk then asked his age and said that the game she was buying was a violent game and they don't sell games like that to children. The grandma's response was: well, he had it before but it broke, so this is a replacement copy. I missed the rest of the conversation because it didn't seem too important at the time, but I think this incident brings up some serious questions.

If the numbers are down, maybe kids are getting their unsuspecting (grand)parents to purchase the games for them?

In the aforementioned case, who is responsible if this kid gets his/her hands on this game? The kid, the parent, the grandparent, or the clerk?

What more can the clerk do? If the kid wants to get the game, he'll get the game. So how can this be the responsibility of the store?