If Your Kid's Playing M-Rated Games, You Can't Blame The Retailer
from the ESRB:-thinking-about-the-children-since-1994 dept
The nationwide discussion revolving around violent video games and what's to be done with them continues without any signs of abating. The usual handwringers (both professional and amateur) continue to express their dismay that games with guns and shooters are being sold to the youth of America, leading us into a future of non-stop mass shootings and Grand Theft Auto-inspired bursts of nihilistic violence.
The concerned cries of "won't someone think of the children" will likely never subside, at least not as long as video games are perceived to be kid-only distractions. (Note to Nintendo: you're really not helping out with this misconception.) The moral panicists paint a bleak picture in which hypothetical 10-year-olds are walking out of Wal-Mart with newly purchased copies of Murder Simulator 5000 and disappearing into their darkened bedrooms, only to emerge moments later armed to the teeth and greatly overestimating their hit points.
It's a terrible future, and one we should all be prepared for. If only it were true.
You see, the proverbial 10-year-old rolling out of a retail outlet with an M-rated game would now be 23 and perfectly capable of purchasing his or her own M-rated games. Every year, the FTC audits retailers and movie theaters with an army of underaged secret shoppers. And every year, these numbers improve.
Thirteen years ago (2000) was the low point: 85% of minors were able to purchase an M-rated game. As of last year, that number was in the low teens.
Only 13 percent of underage shoppers were able to purchase M-rated video games, while a historic low of 24 percent were able to purchase tickets to R-rated movies. In addition, for the first time since the FTC began its mystery shop program in 2000, music CD retailers turned away more than half of the undercover shoppers. Movie DVD retailers also demonstrated steady improvement, permitting less than one-third of child shoppers to purchase R-rated DVDs and unrated DVDs of movies that had been rated R for theaters.Not only has this number improved dramatically over the last decade, but it's done it voluntarily. The ESRB sets the ratings and retailers enforce it, all without the threat of fines or legal action. So, if these 10-year-olds are shooting each other in the face with fake guns made of pixels, they're doing it without much assistance from retailers.
And, as stated above, retailers aren't just keeping video games from falling into the wrong hands. Other "destructive" influences like violent movies and sweary rock/rap/bluegrass are also being kept away from impressionable teenage minds -- at least by retailers.
So, while the debate will rage on and the fingers will be pointed (but, good lord, not in a gun-like fashion), those who wish to regulate the sale of "violent media" will have to look elsewhere to find a villain willingly supplying the Youth of America with evil playthings. And every year this number remains low is another victory for systems of voluntary compliance and a swift kick in the forebrain for those who believe nothing can be achieved without legislation.
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Filed Under: ratings, retailers, video games
Reader Comments
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YOU bought the inappropriate video games.
YOU let them watch inappropriate films.
YOU plop them in front of the TV or computer instead of actually spending time with them.
YOU are to blame when they grow up to be emotionally stunted adults.
Stop expecting everyone else to raise YOUR kids and do it yourself.
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Re: Responsibility
We also need to have the government stop telling parents how to raise children, this only perpetuates the misconception that they require assistance.
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I will say this, and this is coming from the perspective of my father. He is glad that he retired from teaching when he did here in the US. Teachers are now getting blamed for bad grades.
The Video Game issue you bring up is right on. I still blame Hollywood for at least jading parents about any ratings systems though (MPAA ratings consistently change to make money rather than to tell actual content). That is partly why parents rarely take the ESRB ratings seriously.
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We must ban all violence from everywhere because it could affect my child.
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 29th, 2013 @ 4:28am
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Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 29th, 2013 @ 4:28am
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 29th, 2013 @ 4:28am
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 29th, 2013 @ 4:28am
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Who knew?
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Who knew?
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In the two and a half years I've done this I've never had a parent reject a game for Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, or Use of Drugs. If they reject a game, and this is rare, it will be for Strong Language, Nudity, or any of the four sexual classifications.
The excuse I hear most often is "Well he plays it at his friend's house." I suppose that if his friend's parents have approved it then it must be OK. On an interesting sidenote here, I've never had a parent buy an M rated game for a daughter, only sons.
I suspect that parents are just tired from everything they must do today and thus grant tacit approval for the video game violence portrayed on their electronic babysitter. As long as Johnny doesn't see sexual situations or hear bad language then it's OK. After all, he can just turn on the television for those.
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I've 2 children one boy about to enter his teenage years and one girl a couple of years younger. I have purchased numerous games for them which are labeled as mature. Most of the time this is just a joke. You see worse things on the 6 o'clock news, and definitely worse on prime time TV.
I have no problem allowing my kids to play most video games. There has only been a handful of games I have not allowed my children to play and even then its only been a maturity issue that has delayed them. Maybe because I pay attention and we talked a lot about fantasy vs real world when they were younger. We don't talk about it that much any longer, but then they both seem to have a pretty good grasp on things.
I know a lot of people disagree with me, but I think that insulating children from reality as most do (American's at least), is just asking for some of the issues that we see. The world is not fair, it is generally not kind, you will hear 'obscene' language (I quoted this because I have an issue describing any language as such, but that's another topic), and yes you will encounter violence. Shielding them from these things, to me, represents a bigger problem than kids playing fictitious video games.
Teaching children how to handle different situations is what being a parent ultimately is all about. Things like what is and is not socially acceptable (plus they need to understand that this changes over time), what is polite and what is not so polite and when it is OK to use the not so polite, and most importantly when you do something that is not socially acceptable, both little things as a child but more importantly things that impact others as an adult, they need to know that there are consequences and that in life you don't get to reload a save or start over.
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Response to: Glenn D. on Mar 29th, 2013 @ 4:48am
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Content is advertising and advertising is content.
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Back on topic: If you look at the mass shootings over the years, it wasn't violent media, but mental illness, that was likely the cause of the crimes. People who've been bullied, or have imagined slights committed against them, or any number of reasons decide that buying or stealing a gun and killing a bunch of people is justice and everything will be better.
That is a very, very sick way of defining justice. It demonstrates a lack of empathy and rational thought that you see in people who strap a bomb to themselves and go into the middle of a crowd of people and blow it up.
If people want to reduce violent crime, or crime in general, we need to identify those who have mental issues and treat them. We need to find work for those living in poverty and make sure that they have plenty to survive on, even thrive on. We need to rip out the laws that have been passed by a congress in the pockets of corporate interest and put laws in place that protect the rights of citizens, creators, engineers, any one who actually innovates and creates.
But unfortunately, I think that only the first one will happen if any of them do.
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I know, it's wayyyyy out there as a theory and it's not even really that good, but I still think it's an interesting thought experiment.
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piracy
PS: don't you have parents to check what their children are buying and playing with or are they just to lazy, incompetent and morally bankrupt? shouldn't there be a law against them?
PS2: or are your parents and children wise enough to know what is good for them, without some big mouth politicians telling them?
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a solution other than father congress?
next thing you know, father congress won't be deciding your healthcare either!
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HOLD IT!
There are Toys R Us stores still open in America?
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Confusion
The point is, that being desensitized to violent scenes does not create violent behavior. It means, you don't find it disturbing or repulsive. There are many things that I don't find repulsive but will not do, because they are against the law.
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Re: Confusion
Violent video games DEFINITELY desensitize the player/viewer to scenes of video game violence.
Just because I can play a gory game (Fallout's "gibbed" behavior, anyone?) does NOT mean I can stomach even blood in real life.
Hell, I've played racing/flight sim games since I was four, going hundreds, if not a few thousand miles an hour, with not even a forehead crinkle of concern.
Recently, I had a fellow try to merge into me at forty miles per hour, and I could not get my hands to stop shaking for twenty minutes.
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I have had people merging onto the highway in front of me....traveling at 40 miles per hour and waiting until they are beyond the exit ramp to speed up.....Every single person who lives in rural central Ohio feels your pain...
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R-rated Movies
> purchase tickets to R-rated movies
Perhaps they're just not being caught anymore?
The theater where I see most of my movies allows you to buy tickets online and choose your specific seat in the auditorium and at no point does it ask for any kind of age verification for an R-rated purchase.
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Re: R-rated Movies
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I didn't. I had a credit card before I was 18. But the site takes gift cards as payment also.
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Or perhaps kids without credit cards have people (other than parents-- friends, older siblings, etc.) buy tickets for them. It's what I would have done.
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Less game purchases -> more violence?
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Facts are stronger than opinions.
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Couldn't Agree More
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I am a teen
AS LONG AS they know what they are getting into and are mature enough I think its fine.
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not nintendo
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Here's where the logic fails
Can't we please have a game like Call of Duty or Titanfall without the swear words and sexual themes? It really is unneccessary for the game play. Why does it have to be so hard-core? Oh sure, you might say,"if it wasn't so hard-core, you wouldn't want to play it." WRONG. There is a huge difference in the game play between these games even without the hard-core. To prove my point: Hawken. A freakin awesome game for PC. Nothing like it for XBOX One or PS3. They take a great game concept, and ruin it with hard-core, and then slap an M on it and call it good. I have NO good options for my 10 year old, and he hates me for it. Plants vs. Zombies is too dumbed down and Titanfall is off the charts. You know I am right. All they would have to do is include an option to turn off blood and language on many of these games and it would instantly drop to a T rating. Why wouldn't they want to increase sales like this?
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HEY Ratings dont matter
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