Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+
US EditionUS CA EditionCanada UK EditionUK AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Trending
  • Pokemon Winds and Waves
  • New Games for 2026
  • GamesRadar+ Replay
  • Mario Day deals
Don't miss these
A screenshot of the player character looking at the three starter Pokemon in Pokemon Winds and Waves.
Pokemon Pokemon being "a game for children" is "a misunderstanding," Game Freak veteran once said
Nintendo
Games Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto saw games in the '80s becoming like "pornography"
Grace Ashford at her FBI desk in Resident Evil Requiem, covered with monitors and documents
Resident Evil Resident Evil Requiem ties with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as users' best-rated game of all time on Metacritic
Nintendo Switch 2 console on a stand against a red background
Games Nintendo doesn't want Switch 2 eShop to "become a giant slop fest," New Blood CEO claims
Counter-Strike 2 release trailer screenshot showing an old-style white desktop PC running the Counter-Strike menu atop a wooden desk
FPS Games Valve hit with new lawsuit over Steam market, with claims loot boxes "satisfy every element" of gambling by definition
Discord Christmas Sounds
Games "We've made mistakes": Discord delays age verification rollout but promises no meaningful change
Monster Hunter Wilds character carrying a large egg
Monster Hunter After a year of bad reviews, Monster Hunter Wilds claws its way to 50% positive on Steam after a big performance patch
Arc Raiders cover art with three raiders
Third Person Shooters Arc Raiders boss can tell anti-cheat efforts are working since there's "an influx of people trying to get to the studio"
Team Fortress 2 meet the spy trailer screenshot of medic
Games A terrifying 20,282 games were released on Steam in 2025, and just 608 managed to get 1,000 reviews, expert finds
Mass Effect
Mass Effect "F***ing Colonel Shepard dies in Mass Effect 3, and that makes us the Worst Company in America," former EA exec laments
Arc Raiders
Third Person Shooters Arc Raiders has been Steam's top-selling premium game every week since its launch
Dungeons of Dusk scarecrow-looking monster carrying a shotgun
Games "If we only cared about money, we wouldn't ship on anything but Steam," says head of indie empire New Blood Interactive
Death Stranding 2
Games Discord will age-lock your account next month and you'll have to submit an ID or accept a face scan to unlock it
Dispatch screenshots
Adventure Games Dispatch dev says it couldn't get away with a port like Cyberpunk 2077's, is working with Nintendo to address censorship
Dispatch screenshots
Adventure Games Despite all the hentai games, Nintendo won't allow episodic superhero hit Dispatch on Switch uncensored
  1. Games
  2. Nintendo Wii

Videogame retailers finish first in FTC's undercover study

News
By Matt Bradford published 22 April 2011

Undercover research finds more minors turned away at game shops than movie stores

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Flipboard
  • Email
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Get the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more


By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful


Want to add more newsletters?

GamesRadar+

Every Friday

GamesRadar+

Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.

GTA 6 O'clock

Every Thursday

GTA 6 O'clock

Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.

Knowledge

Every Friday

Knowledge

From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.

The Setup

Every Thursday

The Setup

Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.

Switch 2 Spotlight

Every Wednesday

Switch 2 Spotlight

Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.

The Watchlist

Every Saturday

The Watchlist

Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.

SFX

Once a month

SFX

Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!


An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter

The findings come from a recent undercover shopper study conducted by the FTC which showed only 13% of minors were allowed to purchase M-rated content; that is, games the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has classified as being suitable for players aged 17 and up. To put that in perspective, 33% of the secret shopping minors were granted access to R-rated movies, 38% were able to rent an R-rated DVD, and a whopping 68% successfully bought a music CD slapped with a parental advisory warning label.

"We are extremely pleased to see the Federal Trade Commission confirm not only that the video game industry continues to have the highest rate of enforcement at retail, but that it continues to climb higher than before," said ESRB president Patricia Vance. "The strong support that the ESRB ratings have enjoyed from retailers is crucial, underscoring their firm commitment to selling video games responsibly."

Of the retailers tested, Gamestop is reported to have performed the best, allowing only 8% of the minors access to the good stuff – er, M-rated games. Target and K-Mart followed closely behind at 9% and 10%, respectively.

You may like
  • Tiny Bookshop "A single word in more than 100,000 words of localization" got a bestselling Switch shopkeeping sim removed from the eShop
  • Sam Porter Bridges in Death Stranding Discord age verification system will rely on a mix of "AI validation and human review," because that always works
  • Photo by Rosalie Newcombe of the Switch 2 sitting on a wooden table with accessories sitting around it. Game hardware is now $200 more expensive on average than it was in 2019, according to industry analyst

Quick, someone call Fox News - they're totally going to want to run with this!

[Source: USA Today]

Apr 21, 2011



Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Bad Idea Corner potentially welcomes the ESRB, as it starts rating games by computer, unjudged by humans until release
This has to be fine, right? Right?



ClassicRadar: "Mature" games that are actually mature
Appealing to adults with more than sex, blood, swears and nudity

CATEGORIES
PC Gaming Nintendo PlayStation Xbox Platforms
Matt Bradford
Social Links Navigation

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries. 

Read more
Tiny Bookshop
"A single word in more than 100,000 words of localization" got a bestselling Switch shopkeeping sim removed from the eShop
 
 
Sam Porter Bridges in Death Stranding
Discord age verification system will rely on a mix of "AI validation and human review," because that always works
 
 
Photo by Rosalie Newcombe of the Switch 2 sitting on a wooden table with accessories sitting around it.
Game hardware is now $200 more expensive on average than it was in 2019, according to industry analyst
 
 
Dispatch screenshots
Despite all the hentai games, Nintendo won't allow episodic superhero hit Dispatch on Switch uncensored
 
 
Aaron Paul's character Robert Robertson in Dispatch, stood holding a dog in an elevator filled with strange superheroes
After superhero hit Dispatch arrives on Switch with mandatory censorship, Nintendo says don't blame us
 
 
Team Fortress 2 meet the spy trailer screenshot of medic
A terrifying 20,282 games were released on Steam in 2025, and just 608 managed to get 1,000 reviews, expert finds
 
 
Latest in Games
Mass Effect
"F***ing Colonel Shepard dies in Mass Effect 3, and that makes us the Worst Company in America," former EA exec laments
 
 
a ditto human sitting on some logs with pikachu and pichu
Pokopia's unhinged dialogue is tempting me away from Animal Crossing: "It's a pretty nice butt, don't you think?"
 
 
A lady looks shocked.
55-year industry vet made the first CRPG, got laid off, went bankrupt, but "I don't care": "Business does not love you"
 
 
Dragon Quest 11
Dragon Quest creator says English is "a simple language," so "the flavor tends to get lost" when translating games
 
 
Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Requiem is too scary for series veteran Hideki Kamiya, who argues Capcom "should make a 'non-scary' mode"
 
 
Yoshi and the Mysterious Boook screenshot of Yoshi smiling with eyes closed
The next big Switch 2 exclusive, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, gets a May release date out of nowhere
 
 
Latest in News
Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise in the It: Welcome to Derry finale
It: Welcome to Derry season 2 is officially in the works, as showrunner promises "something greater" than season 1
 
 
Mass Effect
"F***ing Colonel Shepard dies in Mass Effect 3, and that makes us the Worst Company in America," former EA exec laments
 
 
a ditto human sitting on some logs with pikachu and pichu
Pokopia's unhinged dialogue is tempting me away from Animal Crossing: "It's a pretty nice butt, don't you think?"
 
 
A lady looks shocked.
55-year industry vet made the first CRPG, got laid off, went bankrupt, but "I don't care": "Business does not love you"
 
 
Dragon Quest 11
Dragon Quest creator says English is "a simple language," so "the flavor tends to get lost" when translating games
 
 
Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Requiem is too scary for series veteran Hideki Kamiya, who argues Capcom "should make a 'non-scary' mode"
 
 
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. A lady looks shocked.
    1
    55-year industry vet made the first CRPG, got laid off, went bankrupt, but "I don't care": "Business does not love you"
  2. 2
    Pokopia's unhinged dialogue is tempting me away from Animal Crossing: "It's a pretty nice butt, don't you think?"
  3. 3
    The Asus ROG Azoth 96 HE has returned to take the magnetic crown, but that price tag is going to be a problem
  4. 4
    Dragon Quest creator says English is "a simple language," so "the flavor tends to get lost" when translating games
  5. 5
    One Piece season 2 answers a near 30-year-old manga mystery in surprisingly straightforward fashion

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google Add as a preferred source on Google
  • Terms and conditions
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Careers
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...