The Federal Trade Commission today released the results of its latest nationwide undercover shop of movie theaters and movie, music, and video game retailers. The FTC conducted a survey with 13-to-16-year-old undercover shoppers to collect data about the extent to which retailers prevent unaccompanied children from buying tickets to R-rated movies, R-rated DVDs, Unrated DVDs of movies that were R-rated in theaters, M-rated video games, and music CDs labeled with a Parental Advisory Label – “PAL” – for explicit content.
The survey found that 20% of underage teenage shoppers were able to buy M-rated video games, a major improvement from all prior surveys, and down from 42% in 2006. While CD and DVD retailers demonstrated some improvement since the 2006 survey, roughly half of the undercover shoppers still were able to purchase R-rated and Unrated movie DVDs and PAL music CDs. The fact that so many children were able to purchase Unrated movie DVDs – some of which contain content that, if rated, might result in an NC-17 rating – indicates that retailers need to re-double their efforts in this area. Although movie theaters have improved since the 2000 shop, they still sold R-rated movie tickets to unaccompanied children 35% of the time, demonstrating no statistically significant improvement in ratings enforcement since 2003.
CORRECTED: May 16, 2008
The survey found that results of the undercover shopping varied by retailer and product. Three movie chains – National Entertainment, Regal Entertainment Group, and American Multi-Cinema – turned away 80% or more of the underage teens who tried to buy a ticket to an R-rated movie. Wal-Mart did the best of the major retailers shopped for movie DVDs, denying sales of R-rated and Unrated DVDs to 75% of the child shoppers.
With regard to M-rated video games, Game Stop rejected an impressive 94% of underage shoppers, while Wal-Mart and Best Buy spurned 80% of them. Some stores had very different results for different media. For example, while Best Buy rejected 80% of underage buyers of video games, it turned away underage shoppers for PAL music only 47% of the time, R-rated movie DVDs only 38% of the time, and Unrated movie DVDs only 17% of the time. Similarly, Target refused to sell M-rated games to underage buyers 71% of the time, but refused sales of PAL music only 40% of the time, R-rated movie DVDs only 35% of the time, and Unrated movie DVDs in only 23% of the cases.
Tables A through E break down the survey results by theater chain and retailer. The number of shops for each reflected that chain’s or retailer’s share of the market.
|
Table A: Movie Theater Tickets (R-Rated) |
||
|
Chain |
# of Shops |
% Able to Purchase |
|
National Amusements |
15 |
13% |
|
Regal Entertainment Group |
51 |
18% |
|
American Multi-Cinema |
35 |
20% |
|
Cinemark USA |
27 |
33% |
|
Other |
59 |
42% |
|
Hollywood Theaters |
15 |
47% |
|
Marcus Theaters |
15 |
47% |
|
Carmike Cinemas |
18 |
56% |
|
Kerasotes Theaters |
15 |
80% |
|
Table B: Movie DVDs (R-Rated) |
||
|
Chain |
# of Shops |
% Able to Purchase |
|
Wal-Mart |
72 |
25% |
|
Circuit City |
16 |
31% |
|
Borders |
15 |
33% |
|
Grocery stores |
15 |
47% |
|
Kmart |
17 |
47% |
|
Blockbuster |
15 |
53% |
|
Best Buy |
34 |
62% |
|
Barnes & Noble |
14 |
64% |
|
Target |
31 |
65% |
|
Transworld Ent. |
18 |
78% |
|
Table C: Movie DVDs (Unrated) |
||
|
Chain |
# of Shops |
% Able to Purchase |
|
Kmart |
15 |
20% |
|
Wal-Mart |
74 |
24% |
|
Circuit City |
14 |
29% |
|
Grocery stores |
14 |
36% |
|
Borders |
14 |
50% |
|
Blockbuster |
16 |
56% |
|
Target |
29 |
76% |
|
Transworld Ent. |
18 |
78% |
|
Best Buy |
32 |
81% |
|
Barnes & Noble |
15 |
87% |
|
Table D: Video Games (M-Rated) |
||
|
Chain |
# of Shops |
% Able to Purchase |
|
Game Stop/EB Games |
66 |
6% |
|
Wal-Mart |
62 |
18% |
|
Best Buy |
35 |
20% |
|
Toys R Us |
15 |
27% |
|
Target |
28 |
29% |
|
Kmart |
16 |
31% |
|
Circuit City |
16 |
38% |
|
Hollywood Video |
15 |
40% |
|
Table E: Music CDs (PAL) |
||
|
Chain |
# of Shops |
% Able to Purchase |
|
Kmart |
12 |
17% |
|
Other |
44 |
41% |
|
Circuit City |
14 |
50% |
|
Best Buy |
53 |
53% |
|
Virgin Megastore |
15 |
53% |
|
Target |
30 |
60% |
|
Borders |
15 |
67% |
|
Barnes & Noble |
15 |
73% |
|
Transworld Ent. |
47 |
77% |
The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, click http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.shtm or call 1-877-382-4357. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,600 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. For free information on a variety of consumer topics, click http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm.
(08 secret shopper survey – corrected)