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Don't let GTA IV run over ratings

April 25, 2008 Only four days until Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV gets the green flag at retail. That makes it primetime for legislators around the country who would like to see sanctions imposed on the sale and rental of violent games.

Right on cue, California Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), the author of a 2005 law  to prohibit the sale of violent games to kids, this week urged parents not to purchase GTA IV for their families.Yee's law is tied up in court, opposed by the EMA and others, but his quest continues. 

In a press release,  Yee says Rockstar has "a history of deceiving the ratings board and the public on the true content of their games," in a reference to the "Hot Coffee" incident of 2005. He takes both the game maker and the ESRB to task for the incident, in which sexual content was hidden on the game. 

"The ESRB rates a game based solely on a short video clip and information supplied by the game's maker and does not actually play or review the full content of the gam," Yee's release says. "While M-rated games are designed for adults, there is no prohibition to selling such games to children. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission reports that 42 percent of unaccompanied children 13 to 16 years of age can successfully purchase M-rated games."

Yee's preemptive strike against GTA IV should be a reminder to retailers that lots of legislators would like to make entertainment ratings--for movies and music as well as videogames--mandatory, not voluntary, as they are now. Don't give them any more ammunition.

It is true that in 2006, according to the FTC, 42% of young teens who attempted to buy M-rated games were able to do so. What he doesn't say is that was a dramatic improvement from 85% in 2000, 78% in 2001 and 69% in 2003. But it's still not good enough (and plenty more kids were able to rent or buy R-rated DVDs).

Enforce the ratings in your store. Period. GTA IV will still be a huge seller. 

Posted by Marcy Magiera on April 25, 2008 | Comments (0)