Mattflix

Half the problem is the ratings board themselves. R rated is meant to state that the movie is too much for anybody under the age of 18, which is just not true most of the time. Outside of an occasional movie that's too violent, sexual or subversive, most of them are fine for anybody over the age of 13. Nothing bad is going to happen if a 15-year old watches a movie with a little gore, boobs or swears in it. They will not become corrupted criminals with no understanding of values. That just doesn't happen in real life.

Someone said before that they're worried about the one parent that will complain and I totally agree here. There's always going to be one ultra-conservative family who raises their kids on PG movies until they hit 18, and they're going to be the ones who flip out when this happens.

As for myself, I'm 32 now. When I was underage I never had a problem renting or buying R-rated movies. Also we went to the theater weekly and saw R-rated movies all the time, I think we got carded once. We said we all forgot our licenses. To make us prove that we were 18, they asked the ultimate question: what year were we born? So we just subtracted a year from our birth year and got it. Like we'd be stumped by that question.

speedy1961

Order online? Use a beard? Have one of us here order it for you?

Lt. Brannigan

When I was under 18, the only time I got carded buying movies was when I bought Godzilla 2000 on DVD.

kd5

I'm of the opinion that if they're going to restrict age of admission, they should restrict age of purchase as well. If they aren't going to enforce age of purchase, then what's the point of restricting age of admission? -kd5-

asianxcore

^
This

Also this doesn't feel like anything new. I remember being a young lad once and not being able to purchase CDs that were labeled with 'Parental Advisory' sticks on them at music stores.

Shannon Nutt

The last time I remember getting carded for anything was when I went to see PRIVATE PARTS in the theater. I was 27. Actually felt flattered.

gonzoisking

As someone who used to work in retail I can tell you that you can in fact lose your job for selling R-rated movies or M-rated games to minors. In fact we usually got a heads up from management telling us to be careful because they were sending mystery shoppers out to check on us. I have had a coworker fired for not checking and selling to a minor. So I'll tell you what I told every kid who ever tried to argue with me on the subject: "Them's the breaks kid".

Obi-Wanma

^You can lose your job for pretty much any reason the employer chooses, still doesn't mean it's illegal, because it isn't.

gonzoisking

I'm not sure what your point is. I never said it was illegal. I just said you can lose your job for doing it. I wasn't going to risk my job to do it. Are you implying that I should have?

Obi-Wanma

Not at all, all I was saying was that not all stores have or enforce that policy, thus an employee is not always in danger of losing their job if they sell to a minor. It could be a new policy at the OP's store, or just the employee taking it upon themselves to protect the sanctity of youth

Mattflix

Video games are a little different. They have a controversy from soccer mom-types (who've never playted video games themselves), who beleive that only children play video games, so violent ones are treated as if they're made solely to corrupt the youth of America.

I've found that the ERSB video game ratings system in response is much stricter, just for the sake of protecting the industry. Gamestop is particularly careful. I once saw a 10ish-year old with his dad, purchasing a Grand Theft Auto game. The clerk read all the warnings to the dad, made sure he understood. Then the kid gave his money, and the clerk would only accept the money if the dad handed the money to him.

Also I saw a funny one where a little kid wanted to buy God of War, and the clerk advised his mom that the game included nudity. The mom went "NUDITY?!?!?", clearing oblivious that a video game could contain adult contend.

So when an R-rated film comes out, people aren't so shocked because any adult watches movies, unlike the relatively young medium that video games are.

Struckworld

"Extreme graphic violence, yeah yeah.... wait a second.... NUDITY?!? OH DEAR LORD NOOO!!!!!"