M-Rated Games Are Harder For Teens to Buy

Each year, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) hires many 13-16 year olds to go shopping. They aren’t just shopping for anything though; these teens are out to buy products that have Parental Advisory Labels, or PAL’s. Specifically, they’re attempting to buy R-Rated movie tickets and DVD’s, PAL’d CD’s, and M-Rated video games.

As you can see by looking at the graph to the left, the sales of M-Rated games to minors has drastically decreased in the past couple years, from 69% being able to purchase the games to 20%. This means that video game retailers are paying closer attention to minors without parents trying to buy M-Rated content.

The FTC doesn’t just stop at grand totals, they track which stores allow the minors to buy the games. If you’d look at the table below, you can see, in order of percentage of sales, the stores that sell M-Rated video games to minors.

As you can see, Gamestop denies almost any sales, while Hollywood Video really doesn’t give a care who they make a buck off of.

Just remember kids, if you want to buy an M-Rated game, bring your mom, dad, or guardian with you to the store so you don’t look like an idiot.