NEED TO SEE SOME ID
September 7, 2000

Two of the nation's top retailers, K-Mart and Wal-Mart, today initiated a program that will require people to present identification when purchasing M-rated games, effective next month. The companies will have a new technology available in time for Christmas that will tell cashiers to ask customers for ID before selling the products.

Wal-Mart had begun educating parents about the ratings system earlier this year by posting signs in stores to explain them. K-Mart intends to follow suit.

This may be a major step in enforcement of the ESRB ratings, which many retailers, including both K-Mart and Wal-Mart in many instances, have simply ignored. Size is an indication of how far reaching these stores are, which is why this is probably just the first of many such policies. Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailers, and K-Mart is the US's third largest retailer.

We can likely expect many more stores to adopt this type of program, particularly as politicians continue to insist that video games actually cause violence in attempt to punish the gaming industry through their crusades to do what's best for their political reputation and bolster their career (a solid example of this is Senator Liebermann, who after years of speaking out against the entertainment industry is now a Vice Presidential candidate). Toys R Us says they have already implemented this age check requirement.

Even if the action may seem a bit drastic to some, at least they didn't go overboard like JC Penney and Montgomery Ward did a couple months ago when they banned all M-rated games from their stores.