NIMF Soliciting Secret Video Game Shoppers

Everyone call your local gamestop, best buy, curcit city and any retailer that sells M rated materials. Their intent is to catch retailers of guard so we'll cut off their lil project.

You know what?

I'm honestly so sick and tired of this crap. Stores can do what they want. If they want to sell a 8 year old GTA than so be it. There are parental locks on all current generation consoles. Use the locks and if your kid comes home with a game that isn't suitable for them, than they won't be able to play it. If they are exposed to things you don't want them to see. Than it's your fault, not the store or the developer. M-rated games don't need to be kept out of children's hands. Parents need to start learning how to program thier consoles.

[...] [Via GamePolitics] [...]

my chart at http://members.aol.com/KinCryos/FTC.png (sorry to spam) uses data from the FTC reports on marketing violence to kids and it shows that of violent movies, music and videogames, only videogames have taken a nosedive whereas violent movies and music are still selling as strong to kids as ever. NIMF isn't living up to it's name if it isn't applying itself toward ALL media.

@Jack

That's called making a biased report buddy. The way to do this would be going ot a store you wouldn't regularly go to for games, such as Wally world, Meijer, or Circuit city.

As far as I know, the retailers being targeted by NIMF (Best Buy, Blockbuster, Circuit City, Game Stop, Kmart, Target, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart according to their survey card) all have policies to not sell M rated games to children under 17. If the store employees follow the policies, then this survey will help publicize the fact that minors aren't buying the games themselves.

This is a good thing, especially in the argument for legislation.

As such, if any of my boys are willing to participate, I'm going to run a few stores in my area and report the results back to NIMF. I'm hoping for good results, although it saddens me that there are parents so uninvolved in their children's lives that they are unaware of what games their kids are playing and thus this sort of thing is even necessary.

Isn't there already a secret shopper program? I remember when I was younger working in McDonald's, we had secret shoppers come in regularly. Not even the manager would know they were coming. Having seen a few reports (the ones were I served them; damn near perfect scores, too) they report how long they waited to be served, what they bought, how long they waited over all, even how many people served them and whether the food was good.

From what I know, the secret shopper program doesn't answer to any company, they go to virtually all stores, reimburse their shoppers (who keep what they buy), and report the results to the companies. The companies actually like the secret shoppers because it lets them know how well they are serving their customers and what they can improve on.

Is NIMF soliciting its own private secret shopper army or trying to get more to report on underage game sells? I can't expect it is the latter, as I believe you have to be at least 18 to be a secret shopper.

If someone wouldn't mind telling me, what sex are they talking about? I personally don't know of any games with sex in it.

@ Jakethe8lf

It is not entrapment if they are not going to be suing or prosicuting them. They are just gathering information for lawmakers to use.

I do hope that they get numbers even lower than the FTC report. Can you imagine their response when they get a

I find that this news coming out on the same day is deliciously ironic:

@eagle
"(And to the above commenter who is comparing M-rated video game sales with the sales of Playboy, cigarettes, and beer… Are you serious!?)"

I was not comparing the sale of video games with beer, etc. What I was doing, is pointing out that the NIMF seem to have figured out that it is not the video game industry's fault that kids are getting the games. If any industry should be blamed it is the retail industry.

Example: Let us say your 15 year old child is caught with a six-pack of Heineken. Who do you complain to, the brewery where the beer was made, or the store/off licence that sold them the beer without checking ID?

In the same way, imagine your 15 year old is caught playing GTA San Andreas. Do you complain to Take Two and Rockstar, or to the video game store that did not check their ID when they bought it?

I believe children having access to physically harmful products* like cigarettes and alcohol, or sexual material like Playboy and other magazines is far worse than them being exposed to some pixellated blood. My point was to draw attention to the fact that it is not the original creator of these products who is allowing children access to them, rather the retailers, who deal directly with the public.

*(If used irresponsibly)

@ Shoehorn

Walsh did not dismiss legislation. He actually stated that parental invovlement was a temporary solution while we wait for legislation.

The exact quote:

“In the legislative halls in Albany and Washington, D.C., elected officials have taken a keen interest in combating media violence and sex. As they debate the constitutionality of legislation, our children continue to be barraged with graphic displays of sex and violence on TV and computer screens. While the debate about legislative solutions is important and needs to happen, parents cannot afford to wait for elected officials to solve this problem. The costs to our children are too high.”

I think this is a good thing. Combined with Mr Walsh's comments in the other recent story about parents having to take responsibility, this makes me think that they have finally figured out that video games are not just for kids. M-rated games exist, but they are not for children and as such, should be kept out of their hands, and this is exactly what this release calls for.

Also, it isn't just blind blaming of the video game industry. They want the retail industry held accountable, which should happen. Most of the flak video games get is because kids get their hands on inappropriate games. Whether it's some minimum wage cashier who doesn't really care who buys what as long as he gets his paycheque, or the guy who doesn't ask the parent the age of the child a game is intended for, the person who doesn't ask for ID just because the kid has a weak moustache and his voice has broken, these are to blame for kids getting their hands on GTA, etc. and from this comes the cries that video games are targetted at kids, etc (pick your favourite anti-game cliche).*

I would expect a newsagent to be held accountable if it were selling playboy to youger kids. Same with cigarettes and beer in an off-licence. I would not blame the brewery, or the publisher of the magazine, but the person who actually gave these things to people who should not have them.

All in all, it seems like a positive thing to me, in two releases we have seen a dismissal of legislation as the answer, a promotion of the parent's role in keeping inappropriate material out of their kids hands, and a shifting of them blame for kids playing these games from the video game industry to the retail industry where it belongs.

*(I do not mean to offend anyone who works in a video game store who does actually try and make sure that kids don't get the wrong games, but like any other industry/job, there are those people who are simply lazy, irresponsible or incapable of doing what they have to)

"Together we can keep M-rated video games out of kids’ hands… your participation helps us hold the retail industry accountable for selling sex and violence to kids!"

the retail industry or the video game industry? hopefully they really mean the retail industry, because you cant hold the game industy accountable for something that they really cant control.