Federal Trade Commission finds high enforcement of ESRB ratings in retail stores

Tank

Tank

Overkill Specialist
Retailers in the US continue to be strong at enforcing the ESRB ratings when approached by children without a parent, according to the newest "secret shopper" survey by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC sent a number of children, aged 13 to 16, to stores to see if they could purchase games not suited for the game's rating. The results show that only 13 percent of those underaged teenagers were sold M-rated games by retailers, down from an already pretty low 20 percent from the last FTC survey.

By contrast, a whopping 64 percent of underaged teenagers were able to purchase music with its Parental Advisory label in the secret shopper survey. 38 percent of underaged teens were able to purchase R-rated DVDs while 47 percent of them were able to purchase unrated DVD movies. Finally 33 percent of kids were able to buy a ticket to an R-rated film in movie theaters.
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http://news.bigdownload.com/2011/04...sion-finds-high-enforcement-of-esrb-rating-i/

and what's worse? games are still the "bad" guy...
 
TheAvenged87 said:
Interesting. I actually saw one of the attendants in BT Games (Westgate) refusing to sell GTA:San Andreas to a 13-14 year old kid. Good on him. (But if I was that kid, I would've been PISSED)
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Why? I was playing mk back when I was 4. Doom aswell. I was playing gta 3 when I was 14.

unless the kid was a nutjob. But thats another story. Many people on this forum where playing r18 games when we where young:p
 
I started playing Larry when I was 11 and GTA 1 before I could even read. My 5 year old nephew plays Resident Evil. And have I committed any murders? Nope. Is my nephew gonna hack people up with a chainsaw? I doubt it.
 
Raven Gold said:
I started playing Larry when I was 11 and GTA 1 before I could even read. My 5 year old nephew plays Resident Evil. And have I committed any murders? Nope. Is my nephew gonna hack people up with a chainsaw? I doubt it.
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It's not about the media's content be it games, comics, music, movies or rock paintings. If you get a 'disturbed' person it only needs the right circumstances mixed with something to trigger the last straw on the horse back for that person to snap.

However It's obviously not healthy for the 'immature' to go and for example play something grotesque. I've always asked myself this on the flip-side : why can I mutilate someone ingame, but sex is taboo.

:e
Stefan9 said:
Never cared about ratings systems and never will. Personal opinion they are for lazy parents.
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Not only that, but also if you really want to you will find away. Still it is the responsibility of parents not to censor, but to at least make sure their child or children are not exposed to things that is deemed harmful in the proper manner. Nothing is stopping you from explaining why VS just going apeshit on covering up.
 
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The sex vs violence one really has to do with the culture in which most games are created. Most games content is cut to conform US policy/norms and over there any nudity or sex cause a huge out rage while violence is somehow ok...That's why you will find more nudity/sex in european developed games since its much more acceptable for them to have nudity/sex in games.
 
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