In an awesome display of your tax dollars going to waste, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a 140 page document investigating what the common person on the street already knows — that mature content found in movies, television and games are accessible to minors. As far as "M" rated games are concerned, a quick login to a Gears of Wars online match would have revealed as much — much of the average chatter during the game sounds like kids in the 12-14 year old range.
The FTC also noted that it was disappointed with the ESRB’s decision not to put more descriptive details of a game’s mature content related to drug usage, violence, blood, gore and other adult themes.
The game industry is doing a better job of regulating game content not suitable for minors, but Deborah Platt Majoras, chairperson of the FTC, says it can do better. "Self-regulation, long a critical underpinning of U.S. advertising, is weakened if industry markets products in ways inconsistent with their ratings and parental advisories. This latest FTC report shows improvement, but also indicates that the entertainment industry has more work to do."
While Majoras believes that the "entertainment industry has more work to do," her logic is tragically flawed. What is left unsaid is that parents, ultimately, must be responsible for what their children view or play, and no government report or regulation can ever replace this simple fact.
[via NextGen]
