Back in the day when I was but a wee teenager, I was always the 15-year old with the beard who bought everyone tickets to R-rated movies. I never really had much of a problem buying M-rated video games. Looks like the times have changed though, as retailers are starting to take ratings seriously and are cracking down on those under 17.
Ginormous retailer GameStop is now checking ID harder than a club in SoHo. Any employee caught selling an M-rated game to a minor will be immediately fired and their johnson cut off by Jack Thompson*. It gets better though: If you’re an employee who’s paid hourly (read: half of the GameStop/EB staff) and you sell some kid an M-rated game, you AND your supervisor get fired. Sweet. Not only will you be broke now, but your ex-boss is going to be kicking your ass.
* = not confirmed
GameStop: Sell an M-rated game to a minor, enjoy unemployment [Destructoid]
I don’t know about anybody else, but I have serious issues with private, “voluntary” rating boards instituting legal-ish punishments on people. The whole point of these things is SUPPOSED to be to avoid government censorship. Instead, we have some independent, arbitrary body censoring things. Same with movies…
This bothers me also, In fact the fact that our society allows it is scary, we’re becomming mindless drones that need to be told what to do, how to do it, what to think, how to think, what not to think. this is NOT good for the human race.