FTC: Kids having a tougher time buying M-rated games

Today's kids are having much more trouble buying M-rated games than I ever did sneaking into R-rated movies, according to a new government report.

Ars Technica got its hands on a recent survey by the Federal Trade Commission, which sent a squad of secret shoppers—13-to-16-year-olds, to be exact—to retailers across the country. Their mission: To see how easily the undercover kids could buy M-rated games, which are intended only for gamers 17 and over.

The result? 80 percent of the FTC's teen agents were turned away, a 42 percent improvement over the 2006 findings. And consider this: In the FTC's 2000 survey, only 15 percent of retailers stopped minors from buying M-rated games. Looks like someone's getting the message.

In fact, it turns out that retailers are much more strict with games than they are with movie tickets or DVDs. According to the FTC, about 35 percent of its 13-to-16-year-old secret shoppers were able to buy tickets to R-rated movies, while 47 percent had no trouble buying R-rated DVDs.

Of course, the numbers aren't stopping legislators—looking to make political hay from the "Grand Theft Auto IV" brouhaha—from (again) proposing laws that would force game retailers to check IDs. As Ars Technica points out, most of these laws have been struck down on constitutional grounds.

So, what do you think—would you support a law requiring game retailers to check IDs before selling M-rated video games? Or should we allow retailers to regulate themselves, as movie theaters and video stores do?

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FTC report: retailers clamping down on M-rated game sales [Ars Technica]