AU Paper Runs Game Retailer Rating Sting
AU Paper Runs Game Retailer Rating Sting
March 15, 2010
Australia’s Sun-Herald recently conducted a field test to determine local retailers adherence to videogame ratings.
The sting used a 14-year old boy named Peter (pictured), who was ‘described as looking even “younger than his age.” Peter ended up visiting six brick and mortar stores in which he attempted to purchase an MA15+ rated game. While the exact stores visited were not disclosed, it appears the focus of the investigation was more on department or chain stores rather than videogame-only retailers.
In any case, five of the six stores sold the boy a game rated outside of his age range. Peter remarked that he was “shocked how easy it ended up being” to purchase the games.
Groups on both sides of the R18+ rating debate used the sting to support their view on the subject.
Barbara Biggins from the Australian Council on Children and the Media stated, “Our biggest concern with the proposed R18+ rating is children are going to get their hands on these products regardless and there's nothing parents can do about it, no matter how responsible they are.” She added, “What's the point if the enforcement end of the spectrum isn't working.”
Ron Curry, from the game group Interactive Games and Entertainment Association, said that if the sting was attempted in specialty game stores, he would be surprised if the results of the field test remained the same:
When it comes to mass merchants, there can be a high turnover of staff [and] employee moves between departments, and there is potentially a lack of continuity in terms of education and knowledge of what the classifications actually mean. That said, there is no excuse.
Curry believes that the addition of an R18+ rating category for games would mean “less confusion” for Australian retailers and gamers alike.
New South Wales Attorney General John Hatzistergos reminded retailers that selling games to underage patrons could result in a maximum of two years in jail and fines up to $33,000. A spokesperson from his office remarked, “The government takes breaches of classification compliance laws seriously and has given police full authority to enforce laws dealing with this offence.
The mouthpiece added, “A national review of computer game classification laws is currently in progress and work is also under way to develop proposals to improve compliance by retailers.”
Picture from The Age. Thanks Ryan!
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Posted 07/30/10 at 10:25am
ZippyDSMlee: No lan too but that will be hack in, with 2X maps its as big as SC,so....want more now ;P
ZippyDSMlee: No lan too but that will be hack in, with 2X maps its as big as SC,so....want more now ;P
Posted 07/30/10 at 10:19am
Rodrigo Ybáñez García: @Cheater: Thank you, I´ll try it later. It happened after I installed the new upgrade, btw
Rodrigo Ybáñez García: @Cheater: Thank you, I´ll try it later. It happened after I installed the new upgrade, btw
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E. Zachary Knight: Zippy, I thought SC2 was only 1/3 of a game? ;)
E. Zachary Knight: Zippy, I thought SC2 was only 1/3 of a game? ;)
Posted 07/29/10 at 08:59pm
ZippyDSMlee: SC2 is god! BOW DOWN TO SC2!
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ZippyDSMlee: SC2!!SC2!!!SC2!!!!!!
ZippyDSMlee: SC2!!SC2!!!SC2!!!!!!
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Posted 07/27/10 at 01:36pm
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ZippyDSMlee: Ah I didnt see it down there :P
Posted 07/25/10 at 01:51pm
ZippyDSMlee: Cheater87:I do not think they see the need for it its a shame its more needed than E10.....
ZippyDSMlee: Cheater87:I do not think they see the need for it its a shame its more needed than E10.....
Posted 07/24/10 at 08:19pm
Cheater87: Zippy I sent them an email about a 15 age category a year or so ago and they said they had no plans for one at the moment. I'll send another one and see if they respond back again.
Cheater87: Zippy I sent them an email about a 15 age category a year or so ago and they said they had no plans for one at the moment. I'll send another one and see if they respond back again.
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Comments
There is something parents can do about kids buying MA15 or even MA18 games.
Check the game they bought, and if it has a higher rating and content they find questionable, take the game away and return it to the store.
Seriously, it's not fucking rocket science, yet people like the lady from that council play it like ALL parents are incapable of even basic addition.
That was my thought exactly. If my kid ever brought home a game that I do not approve of, it would be immediately returned and the money he spent on it would be taken by me as punishment. If I am unable to return the game, I will trade it in at a used game store and the money gained would be taken by me as punishment. either way, my kid would be out a game adn the money to buy another game.
It is called discipline people. It is not that hard to do.
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
Okay, are you people just stupid? Whether or not the stores actually enforce the ratings has nothing to do with the need for an 18+ rating itself. If you want to make some kind of law about actually enforcing the ratings at the store level, or fines or whatever, that's fine. This misses the point of the entire R18+ debate altogether.
They would probably get a much different result if they went to the stores that specialize in videogames.
"14-year old boy named Peter..."
"...he attempted to purchase an MA15+ rated game"
...That's a helluva lot different than, say, a 12-year old or younger kid buying said games.
-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-
So exactly what kind of ID does a 15 year old in AU carry? seriously, i didn't get a form of ID till i got my license at 18... had no need for it before i left for college... Do teens actually have some form of proper ID, or are they saying that a 15 year old who does not have need for a license is not able to buy a 15+ game?... in the US, 18+ makes sense as you have a common need to prove your age
I'd also add that i think "stings" in the US generally used 14-15 year olds... i mean who really cares about a single year difference, it's only when you get a younger teen buying something several years older than himself that people really start giving a damn. Maybe they should try this sting with a 10 year old and see what the results are.
not to mention, due to the lack of controversy over 15+ games and the fact that 18+ games are either banned or dumbed down, it is easy to find that retailers get lazy... their more concerned about their public image than anything and not much of a public is gonna care about 14 year olds getting their hands on 15+ games... The government by not having an 18+ rating is effectively taking responsibility away from people which leads them to often becoming lazy
To answer your id question teenagers can use there driver permits as such since it has there date of birth on it. Also if your parents are in the military then teens can get a cilvilian class military Id as its need to use the tricare health care service.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
There is an ID system in the UK for I think 12-and-ups, which is there so they can prove their age reliably, but isn't directly tied into any other existing ID system like the driving licences, I'd be surprised if the UK was the only country doing anything like this.
EDIT: Or passports would be allowed.
/b
Can anyone from Australia clarify something. Is it illegal to sell MA15 games to kids under 15? I would just like to know.
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
I'm not Australian, but yes, M15+ ratings and above are legally binding:
http://www.oflc.gov.au/www/cob/classification.nsf/Page/ClassificationMarkings_ClassificationMarkingsonFilmandComputerGames_ClassificationMarkingsonFilmandComputerGames
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000
Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl
Hrm. I wonder how nearby his 'handler' was.
If I recall correctly, one of the flaws of many stings is the adult watcher stands close enough to the minor that reasonable people would assume that it is the kid's parent.
Amature stings tend to lack in professional methodology, which is why they are worthless.
looks younger than his age? if he is 14 and looks like that then a 14 year old can and does look like that therefore he does look 14 by deffinition.
anyway if a 14 year old can look younger so can a 15 year old and with only 1 year difference between the kid and the rating mystakes can be made.
sure ID shouldve been requested but these werent videogame stores dont blame the game industry for something they werent a part of ... if anything the game industry was exploited by these stores.
also the kid and presumably his parents knew better than to buy them without a motive like this so he wouldnt have played them anyway. responsible parents teaching their kids about this is allways the best solution (or atleast a last line of defence).
I'm totally unimpressed with this "sting". I have a theory that the closer the person is to the age in question, the more likely the clerk will let the sale go through. The fact that they used a 14 year old to buy a MA15 game isn't impressive. If he were 10, maybe they'd have a better argument.
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He shouldn't be. If these games were rated 18+ as they should be, he wouldn't have gotten a single one of them.
A 14 year old buying a 15+ game is just a *tad* different from a 14 year old buying an 18+ game.
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14 yr old buying a game rated of 15 year olds=spitwad
Hunting the shadows of the troubled dreams.
“Our biggest concern with the proposed R18+ rating is children are going to get their hands on these products regardless and there's nothing parents can do about it, no matter how responsible they are.”
Gee, if only game consoles had some type of parental control that, when activated, would prevent junior from playing the game even if he did manage to bring it home from the store.
Andrew Eisen
*repairs sarcasm switch* sorry about that Andrew, been falling behind on the repair list
Hunting the shadows of the troubled dreams.
I remember others trying this same thing i nthe states. Didn't mean anything then either.
The fact that it focuses on department stores kind of skews the results, doesn't it?
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
It shouldn't but yes, it very likely does.
Andrew Eisen
How the hell is a store supposed to know the difference between a 14 and a 15 year old. I mean 15 year olds don't have any legal identification cards do they?
"No law means no law" - Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black on the First Amendment
@Bigman - many State Transit Authorities offer students an ID card that they can use to get discount off bus and train fares etc. So, while it's not a legal requirement many teens have got an ID card. :)
The thing about this sting "operation" is that the only "issues" it highlights is staff training at large department stores. There's nothing in this for video games or the video game industry.
To use it as a a jumping off point for the regular GAMEZ R EBUL diatribe is pathetic. But that's the Aussie media for you. Sensationalism comes first.
That's the news media in any country, really. The only thing the media likes more than building someone up is tearing them down. "If it bleeds, it leads."
Geaux Saints, Geaux Tigers, Geaux Hornets, Jack Thompson can geaux chase a chupacabra. Hell will stay frozen over for quite a while since the Saints won the Super Bowl.
From the source article:
"Selling RC (Refused Classification) games to minors carries a maximum of two years' jail or $16,500 fine for sole traders, or a $33,000 fine for a corporation."
Um, if it's Refused Classification, the above statement implies it can STILL be sold and is only illegal if sold to minors. Is this actually saying if it's RC it can still be sold, only not to minors? I was under the impression that if it were RC it couldn't be sold at all.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000
Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl
Essentially it can't. RC games aren't allowed in the country through normal shipping paths, which then requires special import techniques to get it in, which are usually very expensive. The fine is simply an addition to ensure the point is made.
" and there's nothing parents can do about it, no matter how responsible they are."
Set parental controls on their consoles, or if they can't figure that do what my parents did. Hide the controllers, then make sure they aren't playing any R18 games. It's simple.
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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
I wonder if these people know that people [in New Zealand] have gotten children as young as ten to walk into stores and try and buy such things as R18 movies, cigerettes and even alcohol to see if the stores would ask for ID or not. Many of them did not, and that's rather worrying.
What's my point? My point is that it's not just video games and video games are by far the worst thing out there. Whilst I think there is absolutely no excuse for a clerk to not ask for ID even for a video game, I would still rather my child have easy access to a MA15 violent video game than alcohol and cigerettes.
I mean, what would you rather wake up to? Your son shooting the hell out of a bunch of cops on Grand Theft Auto or to him dead in your kitchen from alcohol and drugs?
-- Randi Tastix