It's apparently open season on gaming in the television news industry. First we get warned that the Nintendo DS could possible cause our children to be violated, and then a hard-hitting expose on the ease of which minors can obtain M rated games at specialty game stores. Reporter Kris Van Cleave took a couple of children undercover with hidden cameras to try and purchase copies of 'adult' video games. They showed several stores selling games to the underage kids, and then spoke to the clerks on camera (or tried to), most likely getting them completely fired.

The funny thing here is that at the end of the story he cites an FTC study that found that 42% of the time kids had no problem buying M rated games. "Here's a study that got the same results as we did, only 2 years earlier. We could have just shown you that, but I look damn good on camera."

The story could have a good effect on parents at least, letting them know that they have to take some of the responsibility themselves and that they cannot rely on retail stores to monitor what their children purchase and play...or it could be showing them where to point the blame should someone discover their children shooting virtual hookers. Michael Fahey

Minors And Video Games

[ABC 7 News via GamePolitics]