UK Retailers Could Be Prosecuted For Selling Games To Underage Kids

For as long as there have been age ratings on games, nobody has really paid much attention to them and just bought the games anyway. This is why at the tender age of 12 or 13 we were talking about killing a hooker in GTA or dismembering someone in God of War etc. We all turned out pretty well though. It seems now thought that, much like cigarettes and alcohol, retailers caught selling games to underage customers are likely to be prosecuted.

The PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) video games rating system has become legally enforceable in the UK, which means that games published in the UK must be assigned a 3, 7, 12, 16 or 18 age stamp. the former games rating system was managed by BBFC but it was decided to make PEGI the sol ratings authority for games after people got confused between BBFC and PEGI ratings.

We’re all used to the PEGI ratings down here in SA but with the law behind it in the UK, any retailer caught selling something like GTA or God of War to an underage child could very well be prosecuted.

Professor Tanya Byron, a clinical psychologist and independent government advisor on children, said “it is great to see that parents recognise that playing video games can form a positive part of their children’s activities”.

“Video games can be a great educational resource that can also fuel children’s creativity. It would be great to see parents taking an interest in their children’s video game playing. This can involve taking direct control of what games their children play at home, how they play them and for how long through taking note of the PEGI ratings, as well as using parental controls which are in-built on all modern video games consoles.”

I like the part where she implies that violent video games result in disturbed and deranged children because every parent is an excellent one. I’m really rather indifferent about this since it’s inconsequential to me and likely to never be enforced in SA.