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Over 46% of US Retailers Sell M-Rated Games to Minors

Jack Thompson too sent his son on a mission to prove the same thing, but no one listened

Nov 26, 2007 11:56 GMT  ·  By
  

Who would have guessed it? American teens, that's who, and the "corrupt" retailers exploiting the video games market, selling M-rated titles to individuals getting negative answers at other stores, on the count of being under age. It happens with cigarettes and alcohol, so why wouldn't it be the same with violent video games such as The Suffering or Manhunt?

According to this piece up on gamecareerguide.com, it took two months of undercover investigation for the National Institute on Media and Family (NIMF, yeah I know, don't laugh) to find out that as many as 46 percent of the stores sell M-rated (Mature) games to minors. The same source reveals that the investigation was carried out by the East County Youth Coalition, the National Institute on Media and Family along with other youth organizations in the county, while the NIMF surveyed 60 + stores across the US, only to realize that some 46% of them made good business out of selling M-Rated games to teens under the age of 18.

As you can imagine, all of the surveyed retailers were prompted to institute new training sessions for their employees. More than that, it seems that from now on, titles rated by the ESRB as Mature will be enjoying the privilege of sharing shelves only with titles from their own "race".

Recent news concerning the ever-growing market of violent video games brought a group of senators to our attention last week, a group including Hillary Clinton herself, who now stands up for tougher rating standards. Hilary Clinton's rating should also go up along with this initiative but that's not to blame really, since it is for a very good cause.

Remember the story of Jack Thompson boldly sending his son to buy Irrational Games' shooter, BioShock? You know the kid god the game eventually, but no one seemed to make a big fuss over Thompson's little experiment. What did he do with the game anyway...? Did he burn it?

How about you, man? Have you ever gone to a store where they had products not suitable for your age, yet you got the stuff anyway? Who do you think is to blame here? Oh, one more thing. What if the National Institute on Media and Family featured a last component starting with an O?