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FTC Sting Finds Decrease in Sales of M-Rated Games to Minors

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 30, 2006 - 9:28am.
Washington - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday released results of a nationwide undercover operation using children ages 13-16, that found retailers are not selling as many "M" for Mature-rated video games to minors. Overall, 42% of the secret shoppers were able to purchase M-rated games between October 2005 and January 2006, down from 69% in 2003, and 85% in 2000. Enforcement of game ratings was higher among national retailers, where only 35% of secret shoppers were able to purchase an M-rated game, compared with 63% at local and regional game shops. Another aspect of the survey found that 50% of cashiers reportedly asked the child's age, up from just 12% in 2000; along those lines, 44% of retailers were found to have provided information about ratings or ratings enforcement, compared with 24% in 2004 and 15% in 2000. Later this year, the FTC plans to conduct similar operations to determine whether minors are able to purchase R-rated movie tickets and DVDs, and explicit content-labeled music recordings. "The FTC's results very clearly indicate that the nation's leading retailers of games have steadily improved and are quickly approaching the compliance rates of the Gold Standard, movie theatre owners," said Hal Halpin, president of the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association. Separately, the FTC announced that it plans to find out if parental participation in video game purchases and awareness of video game ratings has changed since a survey it conducted in 2000.
tags: Sale | Find | FTC Sting | Decrease | M-Rated Game | Minor |