The results of the Federal Trade Commission's latest research into the marketing of violent entertainment to children is a major win for the video game industry.
Just-released numbers show that the FTC's underage secret shoppers were only able to purchase M-rated games 20% of the time, a massive improvement over last year's 42% success rate.
Amid heightened parental concerns following last week's high-profile release of Grand Theft AUto IV, the news couldn't come at a better time for the video game biz.
DVD sellers, on the other hand were spanked by the FTC for selling R-rated and unrated movies to underage buyers about half of the time. Theaters allowed the FTC's secret shoppers into R-rated movies 35% of the time, making the game industry's results all the more impressive.
New in this year's report are individual ratings for retailers. The FTC results indicate that GameStop is doing the best job of retail ratings enforcement, turning away 94% of underage buyers. Wal-Mart and Best Buy scored high marks as well, with 82% and 80% turn-away rates, respectively.
Listed below are the FTC's video game secret shopper results, listed by retailer (number indicated is successful purchases of M-rated games by underage buyers):
Game Stop/EB Games - 6%
Wal-Mart - 18%
Best Buy - 20%
Toys R Us - 27%
Target - 29%
Kmart - 31%
Circuit City - 38%
Hollywood Video - 40%
A graph posted on the FTC website (and seen at left) traces a steep decline in underage sales since 2000, when secret shoppers were successful 85% of the time.
We'll offer reactions from the video game industry and other stakeholders as we receive them.
Comments
Just to be clear, I'm not claiming there's no value in the numbers reported by the FTC or a major procedural flaw in its current methods.
All I'm saying is I'm not really that impressed by the percentage of kids who are able to buy an M-rated game when given money, transportation, and permission (that's the manufactured part). When minors lack all three, I’m willing to bet that the number is a lot lower than 20%.
Andrew Eisen
What you're asking for is completely different data. The FTC is testing chance of success per attempt. You're asking for either # of attempts, which is sort of feasible but not especially valuable, or you're asking for a ratio of success to desire (ie, of the kids who want Game X, how many actually get their hands on it), which is impossible to determine with any degree of accuracy.
What I'm looking for is data that reflects how often this actually happens in the real world. If a minor scrounging up $50-60, finding a way to a retailer, and attempting to buy an M-rated game is as uncommon as I imagine it is, then there's even less reason to be concerned about minors buying M-rated games even while ignoring the fact that the games won't harm them and that they're denied a sale most of the time.
Saying minors are refused sale 80% of the time is great but what does that mean in real world numbers? Are 120,000 kids still walking away with a copy of GTA 4 or is it closer to 100? And are we talking 9-year-olds or 16-year-olds?
I’d say that’s a valuable bit of info.
Andrew Eisen
Occam's Razor: The simplest answer is almost always the right one. So quite obviously, Thompson has the right idea about sting operations, not this "Federal Trade Commission" or whatever they call themselves.
/sarcasm
There isn't anything you can do in GTAIV that is worse then what you will see in Hostel.
As far as nudity and language, the R rated movies are AGAIN much more explicit. Mass Effect was rated M and only had a Prime Time friendly butt shot that was less then you would see in any swimming pool that allowed thongs.
Well, I look like an ass don't I? Must've posted the link as I was writing up my post. Ah well.
Very cool to see those results, looks like a big win for gaming.
Yeah, the site decided to take a nap for a while. The comments are still in the backend so they might come back with a bit of finessing.
Rest assured; it's not your monitor.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Means, motive, and opportunity (money, reason-to-buy, and transportation): Money's about the only one of these three that I'd actually object to - and even then, birthday money amount seems to me to be rising since I was a kid.
Kids don't need much more "reason-to-buy" than "Hey, this sounds sorta cool, and I'm not supposed to have it!" They're gonna see the advertising (magazines, game store... media coverage!), whether targeted at them or not.
For transportation... Bikes work pretty well, even at twelve or thirteen. Maybe they won't get a young teen all the way to the more heavily-developed areas where you're likely to see a Best Buy or a Wal-Mart, but I'd wager they're likely able to get to *some* store. Or have a parent drop 'em off at the mall. Heck, there's a Game Stop less than a mile from my house, and I'm in a residential suburb. I could *walk* that, let alone bike.
And re: permission: See point #2 "reason-to-buy". The thrill of the forbidden is a *plus*. As for the study's inclusion of a "permission" factor: Again, the stores in question aren't likely to have seen any permission going on - I highly doubt the FTC is going to set up a "can minors buy M-rated games?" study, and then have the minor accompanied to the register by an adult.
All I'm saying is the FTC sting is a manufactured situation. I want to know what the real-world numbers are. The difficulty or practicality of obtaining that information doesn't concern me.
Andrew Eisen
In that case, we have a saying 'round here that I think might be appropriate:
"Sounds like you're volunteering!"
Cute.
But for the sake of being constructive, how about the FTC staff a few game stores and electronics departments and make a note of just how many minors are attempting to buy M-rated games (or movies or whatever)? Certainly there are bugs to be worked out of that suggestion but it's just one of a few off the top of my head.
Let's pretend for a moment that a kid buying an M-rated game is actually a big deal and cause for concern. A 20% success rate doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot if that percentage equals a couple hundred thousand kids. That's why I think it's important to somehow determine just how often this happens in the real-world. Put some context behind that number.
Andrew Eisen
You raise a good point. Because of the "manufactured" nature of all sting operations, if there was some obvious flaw in the manufacturing of this particular sting operation, such that it was obvious to the seller at the point-of-sale that the undercover operatives were not bonafide purchasers, then the difference between the study's numbers and the real world numbers could be very significant.
Oh, sorry. I will make it next time! Now I am going to Amsterdam...