Children running to their nearest GameStop to buy GTA IV should think twice. A recent survey conducted by the Federal Trade Commission revealed that overall, 80% of underage shoppers were denied purchase of M-rated video games.

This is an improvement over a 2006 FTC survey, which indicated that a mere 42% were not allowed to make such purchases. The results are part of a larger nationwide survey on retailers’ vigilance against unaccompanied children purchasing CDs with the Parental Advisory Label, M-rated video games, tickets to R-rated movies, R-rated DVDs, and unrated DVDs that were R-rated in theaters.

In terms of M-rated games, the survey gathered data from eight major retail chains: Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Hollywood Video, GameStop/EB Games, Kmart, Circuit City, Target, and Best Buy.

The results revealed that GameStop was the most stringent, refusing sales of M-rated titles to minors 96% of the time, followed by Wal-Mart’s 82%. On the other hand, the biggest offender was Hollywood Video, which turned down sales to minors only 60% of the time, followed by Circuit City with 62%.

Source: FTC.gov via Gamasutra.com

Tags: circuit_city, eb_games, federal_trade_commission, gamasutra, hollywood_video, r_rated_dvds, r_rated_movies, toys_r_us, unaccompanied_children, unrated_dvds, wal_mart

• Survey Says: 60% Of PS3 Owners Unaware Console Doubles As Blu-ray Player
• Americans Love Their Videogames
• John Davison & Ira Becker Launch New Startup Website “What They Play”
• Psychologist Labels Videogames ‘A Danger to Girls’
• What They Play Survey Results Skewed?
• Come Little One — The Church Of Halo Is Calling — Let Us “Play”
• ‘Brain Age’ Creator is Freaking Crazy
• “It’s Not A Rumah” — Schwarzenegger Will Appeal California Videogame Ruling

No Comments » No comments yet. RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.