Media violence law a concern at retail - Capitol Concerns - Brief Article

DSN Retailing Today, Jan 21, 2002 by Ken Rankin

With a real shooting war constantly in the headlines, it's understandable we may lose track of what's happening in the "culture war" that demanded our attention during much of the 1990s.

Here's a dispatch on this conflict from the front lines in Washington where retailers are emerging as a high-profile target on Capitol Hill.

The latest firefight was sparked by a new Federal Trade Commission charging that violent, adult-rated video games continue to be produced and marketed to children as young as 7 years of age.

The FTC originally raised such concerns during the 2000 presidential election campaign with a blistering report that criticized the entertainment industry for its "pervasive and aggressive" ways of marketing violent movies, games and recorded music to children.

The FTC's report called on the industry to clean its own shop through self-regulation, but some culture warriors in Washington were convinced Congress needed to get into the act with legislation.

Democratic vice presidential candidate and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman promptly introduced a "Media Violence Labeling Act," requiring warning stickers on offensive entertainment products and $10,000-per-day fines for anyone selling adult-rated audio or video items to underage customers.

The message came through loud and clear in Hollywood. And when the FTC released a follow-up study in December 2001, Federal investigators praised the motion picture and electronic games industries for making "commendable progress" in curbing their promotion of violent media products to children.

America's retailers, however, didn't come out so well.

"Unlike the commendable progress by the movie and electronic game producers, retailers have made few changes since the first survey," the FTC said.

A FTC "Mystery Shopper Survey" of 380 retail outlets around the country found "90% of the music retailers sold explicit-content recordings to underage shoppers," while 78% of the stores allowed children to purchase "M-rated" video games.

While these findings reflect some improvement by retailers, it wasn't enough progress for some in Washington. From his perch as chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Lieberman fired off an angry letter to the chairmen of Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Toys "R" Us, Best Buy, Sears and more than two dozen other major chains, expressing "serious concern about the retail community's lack of action" to keep adult-rated products out of the hands of children.

In calling on chains to impose "point-of-sale restrictions" on the purchase of these items, Lieberman said, "The apparent unwillingness on the part of retailers to help parents is deeply disappointing."

The Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association, a group representing many of the retail chains who received Lieberman's letter of rebuke, contends the industry is getting a bum rap. The FTC's undercover shoppers targeted many independent store operators who collectively account for less than 2% of video games sold in the United States, IEMA noted.

A better-structured survey targeting major chain retailers likely would suggest stores are doing a much better job of preventing sales of adult products to children, the group said.

There is reason to believe IEMA is right, and the industry is responding to concerns about the sale of violent entertainment products to children. Even before the first FTC report was issued in September 2000, several retailers, including Kmart and Wal-Mart, announced plans to institute an "age check" system to enforce entertainment product rating codes at the store level.

Sears and Montgomery Ward went even further by pulling all "M-rated" video games from their shelves. Blockbuster began requiring parental consent before selling or renting such games to customers under 17, and Toys "R" Us implemented a point-of-purchase cash register system that prompts checkers to request age identification whenever the bar code for an M-rated product is scanned.

Retailers can't prevent all inappropriate sales, but they are making progress. More progress, it seems, than they get credit for in Washington.