2006 Report Card Issued, Grades Still Seem Problematic
I seriously have no idea how I’ve wound up on the mailing list of the National Institute of Media and Family, but I found an email sitting in my inbox this morning notifying me that their 2006 Video Game Report Card had been issued.
Now, the report card is on the NIMF’s website, and it is more than a little dry. However, over halfway down the page, there is a nice little summary of the project:
MediaWise Video Game Report Card Summary and Highlights
Parental Involvement INCOMPLETE
Ratings Education B
Retailer Policies B
Retailer Enforcement
Big Retailers A
Specialty Stores F
Console Manufacturers A
Now, I don’t know about you, but the F and “incomplete” scores really grabbed my attention. So, what exactly lead to specialty stores getting an F?
11th Annual MediaWise® Video Game Report Card [National Institute of Media and Family]
Although it is encouraging to find that the retailers across the board present the public with a policy to prevent the sale of M-rated games to minors, we see a remarkable gap in the performance of retailers. The big retailers such as Best Buy, Target and Wal- Mart have kept their promise to keep M-rated games out of kids’ hands. In our survey, no children were sold M-rated games at these stores. Stores specializing in video games seemed to be willing to let profits take priority over enforcing the policies they claim to uphold. In our survey, half of all attempts by minors to purchase M-rated games were successful at specialty stores.Uhhh… so it’s cool for you to list the stores that do well, but not the ones that didn’t flunk the test? I may not like Best Buy or Wal-Mart on principal, but I’ll certainly be more likely to support Target now that I know they’re on the ball in regards to checking the IDs of youths and keeping inappropriate games out of their hands. I’d also like to know which “specialty stores” don’t deserve my business because their moneygrubbing behavior is essentially paving the way for more politicians to pass unconstitutional video game legislation. I’m also a little irritated because I feel these details are more than vague since we aren’t given any information about the number of stings issued, how old the kids were, which games were purchased, etc.
Ok, so anyway, let’s look at the parental involvement explanation:
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. 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.Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t a failure to participate normally mean that a person… I don’t know, fails? I find the NIMF’s rationale regarding why they don’t want to give parents a failing grade to be idiotic, especially since they’re willing to come down on folks who wouldn’t need to be policed if parents were doing their jobs. I agree with the opinion over at Kotaku: the NIMF should’ve assigned an F to them, too.
Here’s the thing: if you’re assigning report cards, you cannot play favorites with the people you’re grading. If one group fails, the other group should fail as well when they don’t meet the same criteria. The NIMF should stop throwing certain folks soft tosses and instead try to play fair with everyone.
11th Annual MediaWise® Video Game Report Card [National Institute of Media and Family]
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to on 29 November 2006
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: grades, hypocrisy, NIMF, parents, specialty stores
They based that F grade on a sample of 12 independant stores, and the A grade on a sample of 12 retail stores. Then they claim that specialty stores are greedy, while the big coorporations are warm and fuzzy.
It’s quite clear they have no idea how legitimate science works, no idea how legitimate studies work, and no ethics in regard to the damage their recommendations would cause.
They intentionally blur the line between M rated and Adults Only rated games.
Based mostly on corralational studies, the National Institute on Media and the Family recommends isolation of all youth from games rated Mature by the ESRB. It is unwise for parents to base their decisions on the rulings of a corporate-run political entity.
For a molment, assume that NIMF was correct in claiming that specialty stores sell M-rated games to all interested parties. While stores may be hypocritical in claiming to restrict sales, they are entitled to refuse this group’s vision.
I can only imagine how much of a positive impact this group’s donor base could have made, if they chose to spend their money alleviating the actual suffering and deaths of children around the world than on preventing hypothetical violence.