Video Game Retailers Fall Flat

Local Retailers Say Adult Content is Acceptable for Minors

On July 25, 2008, The Parents Television Council ™ (PTC) released the results of a secret shopper campaign I spearheaded here in New Jersey, where I serve as the state Chapter Director. A most pitiful report that revealed K-Mart, Target, Circuit City and (get ready to scream) Toys “R” Us, all violated their own policies and sold adult games to children. Nationally, PTC chapters found that video game retailers sold Mature-rated video games to minors 36% of the time. In New Jersey that percentage increases to 50% with four of the eight stores visited ignoring the age restrictions. Not only did they fail to card for adult entertainment selections, they didn’t so much as cast a wary eye at the purchasers. The sales were quick, efficient and performed without any regard to their own posted policies. At the Toys “R” Us in Totowa, the manager herself sold to a 15-year-old.

Yes, you read that correctly: The manager.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: How many more school shootings and attacks on peers and teachers need to happen before parents start wizening up? There is an onslaught of violence in today’s culture. Even if you, as a parent, are responsible and involved and ban this violence from your home, it’s shockingly easy for your kids to gain access to it anyway.

Just to make sure I drive my point across and put any nay-sayers to rest, the games sold were rated “M”, and contained scenes of men seeking out prostitutes, gory murders, violence, street beatings, drug dealing, car theft, illegal weaponry possession... My issue is not with the games themselves, but with the stores who sell them to kids. Do you want 12 year olds learning how to hot-wire a car and rape a prostitute? They will if they have access to the Grand Theft Auto series. To me, this is no different than enforcing age restrictions on alcohol, tobacco, pornography and other products that are potentially harmful to children. Parents deserve a reasonable expectation that age restrictions for adult entertainment products will be enforced at the retail level in our community.

There needs to be consequences for retailers who ignore their duty to our community. They have internal age restriction policies at every one of these stores, but without fear of penalty these retailers are not taking this issue seriously.

On two separate occasions in the past year the PTC New Jersey Chapter conducted a total of eight Secret Shopper visits as part of over 100 Secret Shopper visits by chapters nationwide. PTC chapters sent children between 11 to 16 years of age to attempt to purchase M-rated video games, which are classified by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) as inappropriate for anyone under the age of 17.

The retailers visited have company policies that require that video games not be sold to people outside of the ESRB assigned age classification. The children were told to enter the chosen store, find an M-rated game and attempt to purchase it with cash. They were instructed to never lie or misrepresent themselves during the process. When games were purchased, the adult who had waited outside the store would return with the game and ask for a refund.

Further details on the results of the national campaign are available upon request or at www.parentstv.org . The stores that were visited in New Jersey were in Wayne, Paramus and Totowa. More details on which stores were visited both locally and nationally are available at www.parentstv.org/gr/nj . If you want to get involved in the cause, perform your own secret shopping experiment. It doesn’t take long, and wouldn’t you feel more comfortable shopping at a store where you know they take seriously their own policies? Myself, I’ve boycotted the Toys R Us in Totowa. This is not an easy feat with a two-year old, but I feel strongly about this issue. I’m not asking others to boycott, but I am asking parents to get more involved.