Efforts halting violent game sales to minors up, more needed, Catholic study says

WASHINGTON (CNS) - Major retail chains have improved their policies against selling violent video games to minors, but they're not perfect, according to a Dec. 13 report issued jointly by Christian Brothers Investment Services and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

A look at seven nationwide sellers of video games showed that all seven follow the same three of 26 elements judged by the two organizations to be part of an "effective, responsible and well-monitored video game sales policy": store signage featuring game ratings, age verification in stores and employee training programs. Overall, the retailers' compliance with all the elements suggested in the report varies. Best Buy followed 20 of the 26, followed closely by Target with 19. Trailing were Circuit City with 15, Game Stop with 13, Wal-Mart with 12, Toys "R" Us with 10, and Sears and Kmart, now jointly owned, with eight. Even stores without sterling compliance marks were commended for "best practices" in the report. Toys "R" Us puts video games rated M - mature - on top shelves. Game Stop's compliance policy has a strong tie to its store manager evaluations. Target bans ads for M-rated games in advertising it places in teen publications and has an enlarged "M" logo in its circulars. Best Buy bans M-rated games from its TV ads and audits at least 100 of its stores each month for compliance. According to Julie Tanner, corporate advocacy coordinator at Christian Brothers Investment Services, there doesn't seem to be a sense among retailers that video game sales are too big to be stopped by compliance policies or game sales are just a small part of a national retail chain's overall revenues. Rather, "it seems at one point or another all of these (stores) have been hit by a local TV station" using consumers - from "young kids to mystery shoppers" - to help them expose flaws in video game sales policies, she said. "That, coupled with the threat of legislation," keeps retailers on the straight and narrow, Tanner said in a Dec. 15 telephone interview from New York. At least one jurisdiction, Tanner added, mandates fines of up to $25,000 against store managers convicted of selling M-rated games to minors. The report comes on the heels of the National Institute for Media and the Family's annual "report card" grading the video game industry. It gave an A to the manufacturers of game consoles and to the enforcement of big retailers' policies - but an F to enforcement by specialty stores - and gave B grades for retailer policies and education about ratings. The report card gave a grade of incomplete for parental involvement. "Although the response of most parents to the challenge of raising kids in a world filled with video games is inadequate, it doesn't seem fair to give parents a failing grade because parents are constantly subject to mixed messages from the video game industry," the National Institute for Media and the Family said. "While representatives of the industry encourage parents to follow the ratings which warn certain age groups away from mature content, they simultaneously deny that video games have any impact on kids. Making matters worse, the rating system itself has flaws. Parents could be, and should be, doing a lot better, but at least part of their failure can be attributed to the confusion created by the game makers," the institute said. Christian Brothers Investment Services has $4.2 billion in stock holdings spread out over up to 900 different publicly traded companies. Despite this massive portfolio, when confronting businesses about violent video games and other issues, Tanner said, "I don't go alone to talk to a company. I go with other shareholders" so top company management can understand the concerns are authentic. "We had dialogues with each of" the chains mentioned in the report, she added. "We work with them constructively. That way we can have the most impact." The effort at curtailing the sale of violent videos does not begin or end with the retailers, Tanner said. She also has had conversations with the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which devised the ratings system now in use for video games. Talks are also in progress with the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association - which is "a way you can influence several companies," Tanner said - as well as the Entertainment Software Association. "We will continue to monitor further developments in this industry, such as the downloading of games to cell phones and the selling of video games online, to ensure that children are not exposed to inappropriate video game content," the report said. Christian Brothers Investment Services' partner in the report, the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, includes several Catholic groups among its membership. They include the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, the Sinsinawa (Wis.) Dominicans, the Adrian (Mich.) Dominican Sisters, the Benedictine Sisters of Mount Angel (Ore.), the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Milwaukee, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth (Mich)., the Benedictine Sisters of Cottonwood (Idaho), and Aquinas Associates.

Enjoy Daily Readings? Pay it Forward

---

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops