The U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently conducted one of their undercover surveys to see how well entertainment retailers were doing in enforcing the respective ratings systems of entertainment that they sell. The study involved having unaccompanied 13 to-16-year-old children attempt to purchase R-rated movie tickets, R-rated movie DVDs, unrated DVDs of originally R-rated movies, music CDs carrying the Parental Advisory Label that warns of explicit content, and video games rated M for Mature by the ESRB. All of these, or course, are intended for an audience of 17 and up.

The teenagers involved were sent to national and regional retail chains and theaters all over the United States between November 2010 and January 2011. The full FTC release, complete with chain by chain breakdowns in each category, is an interesting read, but here are some highlights:

• Video game enforcement was easily the best, with 13 percent of the shoppers able to purchase an M rated title, down from 20 percent last year
• R-rated movie tickets were next, at 33 percent, statistically around historical levels
• 38 percent were able to buy R-rated DVDs, also trending down, while 47 percent were able to get unrated DVDs
• Music CDs, which have been historically the worst, retain that title with a 64 percent sales rate
• Specifically on games, Walmart was surprisingly the worst showing a 20 percent frequency among the major chains

Of course, these are major chains that were involved, and doesn’t take into account the smaller players who are likely to be more tempted to make a questionable sale like this (since they may not be as much of a position to turn down a sale), but you could say that also applies to all entertainment.

This info is very encouraging as it shows retailers are buying into the ESRB system and that is working for the most part, certainly better than other entertainment forms. And yet (and yes, this is the part where I get indignant), it’s video games always under attack from legislators and the media. There’s no Violent Movie Law before the Supreme Court. Fox News isnt talking all the time about that big gangsta rap album that has songs about killing people and doing questionable things to ladies of the night as it were. The video game industry is surpassing the success rate of these other industries in policing itself, and perhaps shows that this kind of intense scrutiny is best served being focused elsewhere.

Is there work still to be done? Until that number is zero, of course there is. But it’s a great sign and it speaks to the quality of the system that the ESRB has in place and to the commitment of major retailers to stick to that system and make sure that M rated games are not getting into the hands of the wrong players.