Oh, anon. Do I have some STORIES for you.
So what I found out by working at the electronic store I do is that you HAVE to ID everyone buying M or R rated anything. Legally, they treat it the EXACT same as buying alcohol. So unless you have grey hair and wrinkles, your arse is getting ID’ed. This means only parents, grandpaents, or older siblings can buy the children games. Because the rating system is SUPPOSED to be in place TO ALLOW THE PARENTS TO FIGURE OUT THE KIND OF SHIT THEY’RE BUYING FOR THEIR KIDS. But no one uses this for movies OR video games anymore. Which is why each of the following happened:
During my first Black Friday at the store a child no taller than the counter (which is like 3 foot high) comes up. I totally encourage children to do their own purchases so I went with it, thinking the parent was next in line since we made each person with an individual purchase go to separate people to keep the line moving along faster. This child, who has to be like 7 to 8 since he’s not taller than three feet tall tells me he wants Call of Duty. I explain that he can’t buy that himself because it’s rated M so his parents have to buy it because he’s not old enough. He gets out of line and 20 minutes later I have an angry father lecturing me about denying his child a purchase even though he had the money, apparently not giving a damn that his 7-year-old was buying one of the most violent games on the market, or the fact that if I sold it to him and got in trouble I’d be charged with the same severity as SELLING ALCOHOL TO A MINOR.
Several times: “I think he’ll like this game.” “Oh yeah? How old is he?” “He’s 8. It’s what he said he wanted.” “You know this game is rated M for Mature right?” “*gasp* REALLY? What for?” “*turns box over* Adult language, heavy violence, use of alcohol, use of drugs, suggestive themes…” “All that is in that game???” “Yeah. Get him a Nintendo.”
TL/DR: People don’t fucking care about what they give their children to play or watch. SERIOUSLY JUST TAKE A MILD INTEREST IN WHAT YOUR CHILD IS PLAYING AND WATCHING HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS BE PARENTS!! Media is not a babysitter. Media is not something to stick your kid in front of in hopes that they’ll be quiet. And also, VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT FUCKING CAUSING CHILDREN TO BE VIOLENT IT’S THE PARENTS BUYING THE GAMES FOR THE CHILD THAT IS!!
And then when parents find out how violent the games are after buying it for their kids, they turn and blame the videogame companies for making violent games. But it’s not like there’s a rating system or anything to warn parents about what kind of content games have