Game Industry Groups Criticize PTC Comments On Sales to Minors

The Entertainment Merchants Association and Entertainment Software Rating Board criticized comments by the Parents Television Council (PTC) about the findings of the PTC’s latest mystery shopper survey. Videogame retailers sold M-rated titles to minors 19 percent of the time in the survey taken in October, “only a slight improvement over the 20 percent failure rate reported” by the FTC in 2008, the PTC said.

But Sean Bersell, EMA vice president of public affairs, said, “What the PTC’s survey actually shows is that videogame retailers continue to improve their level of enforcement of the ‘Mature’ videogame rating at the checkout counter.” The FTC found game industry enforcement at “the highest level” of any entertainment product, he said. “The level of ratings enforcement” for videogames is “higher than that for R-rated movies in theaters, R-rated and unrated DVDs in stores, and parental advisory-labeled music CDs,” he said. He conceded there’s “room for continued improvement,” but said, “the 81 percent enforcement rate found by PTC demonstrates that industry self-regulation is working well."

ESRB spokesman Eliot Mizrachi called PTC’s research methods “questionable.” He said the latest mystery shopper results “actually reveal significant improvement, despite their efforts to disguise that fact.” The previous survey, in 2008, found 64 percent compliance with store policies, compared with this year’s 81 percent, he said. “Comparing apples to apples, that’s an increase of over 26 percent in just two years,” he said.

The PTC urged the U.S. Supreme Court “to act on the concerns of parents and recognize that” the October failure rate of retailers “remains wholly unacceptable.” The court will hear oral argument Nov. 2 in Schwarzenegger v. EMA. EMA and the Entertainment Software Association fought a 2005 California law that would have made it illegal to rent or sell M-rated games to minors. U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte in San Jose, Calif., ruled that the law violated the First Amendment, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the case.

In the October survey, the PTC said, it had kids 12-16 visit 109 stores in 14 states. Twenty-one stores sold M-rated games to minors. GameStop and Toys “R” Us “were in full compliance with the videogame retail guidelines 100 percent of the time,” the council said. But it said Kmart and Sears “had an abysmal 62 percent failure rate.” Target made “strides” from its showing last time, the PTC said. But it said, “It is the sales policies adopted by GameStop which continue to be the gold standard, and similar policies should be implemented by all videogame retailers as an industry best practice.”

The number of stores in each chain visited for the survey was relatively small. Only 17 GameStop stores were visited versus six Toys “R” Us, 1 ShopKo, 21 Target, 8 Best Buy, 16 Wal-Mart, 9 Blockbuster, 9 Kmart and Sears combined, and 22 local and regional stores, the PTC said. Minors were able to buy M-rated games at Target stores 5 percent of the time, an improvement from 41 percent of 17 stores in 2008, PTC said. Minors were able to buy M-rated games at Best Buy 25 percent of the time, worse than the 8 percent in 2008; at Wal-Mart, 31 percent of the time, improved slightly from 38 percent; at Blockbuster, 33 percent of the time, improved slightly from 36 percent; at Kmart and Sears, 56 percent of the time, versus 50 percent in 2008; and at local and regional stores, 23 percent of the time, improved from 50 percent. ShopKo’s one tested store didn’t sell a minor an M-rated game.

The latest survey’s findings show that “nearly one out of every five underage children in America is still able to purchase a Mature-rated video game from a retailer,” said PTC President Tim Winter. While the failure rate was “not as bad as prior years,” he said, it “demonstrates the continued reluctance or refusal of some retailers to serve the needs of parents."

"Failing close to one out of five times … is hardly something” for the game industry “to be proud of,” said Gavin McKiernan, the PTC’s national grassroots director. Game industry representatives spoke in 2008 about “how excited they were about their only 20 percent failure rate when the FTC study was released,” he said. That’s “one of the reasons we have used” the FTC study and not the 2008 PTC study “as a reference point in some of our comments” now, he said.