Wow, how novel of an idea! For quite some time now, whenever news came out about Mature rated games getting into the hands of minors, it was always the developers' fault or the company that sold the game. With a newly released report card, it looks as if the industry isn't doing too bad, but rather the parents are the one not fulfilling their parental responsibilities for watching out for their kids.

From the article:

What a difference a year makes.

In its 2005 Annual Video Game Report Card the National Institute on Media & Family gave the ESRB a big, red F for accuracy of video game ratings. And it didn’t stand for “fine.”

That was in the wake of the Hot Coffee scandal, of course. This time around the game industry did far better in the eyes of Dr. David Walsh’s organization, earning B’s for “Ratings Education” and “Retailer Policies.”

Console makers scored an A for their system’s built-in parental controls, and big box retailers grabbed their own A for ratings enforcement. Specialty game retailers, however, were tagged with an F.

NIMF spanked parents with an “incomplete” grade, saying moms and dads of young gamers “could be, and should be, doing a lot better…”

Read the full article over at gamepolitics.com