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Only Gamestop and Best Buy think of the children
A local ABC affiliate in Maryland conducted a sting operation to see if minors are being sold M-rated videogames from five national retailers.
They recruited Aaron Fink (no jokes about his name, please), the 15-year-old son of one of their photographers. In the video, you can see that Fink is perched perfectly at that indeterminate cusp between 14 and 18. He went into three separate stores for each retailer. Each time, he attempted to buy a single M-rated game for the Xbox 360. Every attempt failed at Gamestop and Best Buy, where they asked for his ID and declined to sell him the game once they discovered his age. Circuit City and Wal-Mart each failed to check his age two out of three times. Target not only failed to check his ID every time, but at one point, a helpful security guard went out his way to make sure Fink got the game he wanted.
The TV station contacted spokespersons for each retailer that failed, and they've printed their comments in full, which are basically bland corporate disclaimers about how company policy was violated and it will be investigated. Target's mea culpa is funniest for how they try to make it look like a net positive: "It sounds like we have an opportunity to encourage these stores to conduct training we've outlined regarding our video games sales policy".
At the end of the segment, the cameraman holds the ill-gotten games up to the camera while Fink sits looking rather dejected in the back seat of the car. I can tell what he's thinking: "Does this mean they're not going to let me play Call of Duty 4?"
Seriously, though, if you want to crusade against videogame censorship or stand up for violent entertainment or support the First Amendment or however you choose to express this issue, here's where you should start. Next time you buy a game from a Target, Circuit City, or Wal-Mart, ask them to verify IDs. Because if Maryland is representative of other places, these companies' policies are little more than lip service, and they're undermining the laudable efforts of game-makers and the ESRB.
By Somedude at 12:53 AM ON 07/23/08
Meh. When did good old fashioned violence hurt anyone?
By Troy Goodfellow at 9:31 AM ON 07/23/08
I can attest to Maryland Gamestops being really tough on this. I don't go there often, but the last time I went, the matronly women behind the counter were carding almost everyone, and when parents tried to buy an M game for the 10 year old child right beside them, the clerks made sure to explain the rating system.
As for Target's reply, all I can say is "YAY! Training!"
By Lorini at 10:25 AM ON 07/23/08
What happens at Best Buy is when a cashier goes to ring up an M rated video game, he/she has to verify as part of the transaction that the person buying the game is over 18. The transaction won't continue until this is done. Now a cashier could just press yes and not actually verify, but it would be on record that they had done this, so if an angry parent came back and said Best Buy had sold his kid an M-Rated game, the cashier could be held responsible. Now the cashier has discretion of course, so they don't have to ask somebody my age if they are over 18. This is in California, btw.
By Justin Fletcher at 2:09 PM ON 07/23/08
I was going to make a snarky remark about strategy guides and trade ins, but I guess Gamestop actually deserves some respect. For once.
What's pathetic about Target and Wal-Mart is that most of their games are under lock and key. Their employees have more than enough time to muse over the store policies, from the point when a customer tracks them down in the magazine aisle to the point when they've retrieved their key, crawled over to the case, opened it up, moseyed back to the register, rung up Manhunt 2, and handed it to the fresh faced adolescent.
By jabber at 4:12 PM ON 12/27/08
Im fourteen and I bought 3 M-rated games at target, No one questioned me or even glanced at me when i was buying the game to verify age. Haha what a joke. Best Buy however screwed me over, as well as gamestop.
jabber:
Im fourteen and I bought 3 M-rated games at target, No one questioned me or even glanced at me when i was buying th...More »