I signed up for the Video Game Voters Network while at GDC this year (mainly because you got a free shirt on the spot for doing so) and have been getting emails from them every now and then. Today I got an email on the difficulty of buying a Mature rated game compared to things like CDs with a Parental Advisory, rated R movies, rated R movie tickets, and unrated dvds. So how did videogames fare?



It would seem that Mature games are the hardest form of adult media for kids to buy these days. It' s surprising how bad it was a while back (not that I cared because I bought Mature games as a kid all the time) but they sure have come a long way. The other forms of media are much easier in comparison. It' s pretty obvious that the argument about kids getting their hands on horrible, mind corrupting games is pretty invalid at this point.

Video Game Industry a Leader in Protecting Children from Mature Content ftc.gif

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released the results of its latest nationwide “secret shopper” survey, which employs undercover 13-to-16-year-old’s to determine if retailers follow rating guidelines and age restrictions. The annual study by the FTC is designed to show the extent to which retailers prevented unaccompanied children from buying tickets to R-rated movies, R-rated DVDs, M-rated video games and music CDs labeled with a Parental Advisory Label (PAL) for explicit content. The 2008 survey showed that video and computer game retailers scored well and indicated a significant improvement by entertainment software retailers to ensure that only age-appropriate games are sold to minors.

This year’s survey found that video game retailers are scrupulous when screening for underage shoppers, with 80 percent of underage buyers rejected at the point of sale when buying M-rated games. This is a major improvement for video game retailers from all prior surveys, as the percentage of underage buyers able to purchase M-rated games has decreased by 38 percent since 2006.

With this in mind, one has to ask, is targeting video games for more regulation really necessary? Overall, as seen in the graph below, the Federal Trade Commission saw a steep decline in underage sales for video games over the past eight years.