It's been about a month since the Entertainment Software Ratings Board launched their Commitment to Parents initiative.

I recently spoke with board president Patricia Vance for a story I was working on for the Rocky Mountain News about how the program was going.

Vance says that more retail chains will be joining the program soon and that the ESRB is about ready to launch the first in what will become a biannual mystery shopper audit of member stores.

Right after the program was announced in June, the Rocky sent a 15-year-old boy to four stores in the Denver area and one in Colorado Springs to see how the system was working. None of the stores sold the teen a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Vance said she wasn't surprised:

"When you look at the issue of how kids are getting games that are treated as being perhaps unsuitable for them, in a vast percentage, it's the parents who have purchased the game. "It all boils down to parental responsibility."

I think the system in place is a good one, but I was surprised. I really thought at least one clerk would give up the game. Vance suggested we go back to the stores and try to get the same teen to buy an R-rated DVD and CD with an Explicit Lyrics sticker on it.

Yeah, I bet he would have had no problem there. Brian Crecente

Board Builds Its Rating Muscles [RMN]

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