Surely you mean, "right parents?"

It's a point of sales issue. Lots of the big retailers, like Wal-Mart and Target, don't check ID for games even when the sale is clearly to a minor who shouldn't be purchasing the game. If, as Tom put it in earlier pieces, we want gaming to be both respected and self policed, we should demand that retailers follow the ESRB guidelines as they've agreed to. If they don't, it leaves gaming open to attacks from loonies like Thompson, and not so loony people like Obama.

And from there you can totally derail into the games as art discussion and the do games influence people discussion.

every little kid wants to play the big people game. "hey davie, last night i was playing GTA VI, and i killed an old defenseless man with a baseball bat. it was soo cool. i dont know why, and i felt funny afterward. but it was soooo cool." chasing the ever present need for cool, they get the parent to buy or buy it with their allowance. if the kid's parents are responsible, they either dont buy it for him or ask/keep an eye on wat games the kid buys/plays. but let's say the allowance kid's parents are just a bit lazy. so they wouldn't buy the game, but dont check up on things (makes them feel awkward). the only other way to avoid the 10 year olds of the world from seeing strip malls and general slater is at the checkout counter. BUT, the ever present need for cool remains. making enough ten year old wat the game that they find a way to get the game. and that means a big profit for the store. and why should the store care. they only get in trouble when they get complained at. even then the clerk that sold the game might just get fired or transfered to hunting supplies (im not kidding, the wal-mart here would totally do this). the store can still go about their easy way. wat, they did something about it. you'ld have to force the store AND the clerk to care. my opinion, make a hefty fee for selling M games to under ages. now if only we could do something about lazy parents.

well from a teens point of view its entertainment to play these games and it could make a child want to kill just as much as it could give an adult the idea so whats the difference. You let children play games like Halo where you still kill some people but mostly aliens but you don't complain that that game is "inappropriate" or "a bad influence". Yet when they play GTA (a completely fictional game) you get scared of what it could do to them and that it could make them want to do the same. Young children do get an easier influence over things than some adults but doesn't mean that they will go out on a highway hi-jack a car then drive it around till they find a prostitute and beat her to death with a crowbar then find a police officer shoot him and go on a high speed chase just cause they did it in a game. But i do think that the ratings are a good way to warn parents who may or may not pay attention to them. And lastly some of these games can teach children/teens vital life lessons and what not to do, I myself have learned many things from video games and my interest in the games made me want to learn about electronics and now I'm very good at working electronics

For whatever it's worth, I let a visiting friend give it a go and she ran straight past all of the cops right to the boat.

Games have become a disappointment in recent years!

There is apparently such a lack of imaginative content by so called game designers, that they feel they have to resort to filling them with unnecessary violence! Games don't have to be violent to be good! Children are already subjected to a multitude of negative influences in reality as it is. They certainly don't need to have such content justified by implying that it is 'acceptable', much less 'fun' for them.

Just a comment from someone that works in the game industry!

Police are supposed to be civil servants, quite literally yours and my SERVANTS. They should be genial, helpful, efficient, dutiful, and always with an eye for the truth and a deaf ear towards prejudice. Instead they are petty, arrogant, hateful and self righteous, lazy in their work and uncaring for the truth, disrespectful towards their masters the public and downright irresponsible in the heavy handed way their dole out arrests which will steal years of a man's life in the end. They put men in jail for NON VIOLENT OFFENSES which hurt neither the offender nor the public or any private parties.

Quite frankly, the cavalier fear mongering police forces of the world have brought such orgasmic displays of the public's resentment upon themselves. It's nice to see them squirm.