You're A Bad Parent

... Or at least that's what Bill Hastings, New Zealand's chief censor for the Office of Film and Literature Classification, thinks if you're purchasing Grand Theft Auto IV for your child.

The law forbidding parents to purchase adult-rated video games has been on NZ's law books for quite some time, but according to the New Zealand Herald, it has never been enforced. As far as these grand ol' United States go, I can't recall our age-restriction law ever being enforced, either, except when I sidled up to Daddy's Liquor Shack and tried to pick up a fifth of JD (but that's neither here nor there).

Before I go apeshit on Hastings, he did say a few sensible things about Grand Theft Auto IV, showing—unlike many U.S. anti-video game legislators—at least a rudimentary understanding on the game's make-up.

With the games we ban you have to kill everyone you meet and you’re generally rewarded for making the killing more gruesome. In Grand Theft Auto, you don’t have to kill everybody you meet - you could drive around and just look at the architecture…

All games in the Grand Theft Auto series have a kind of black satire - an overstatement of machismo. It takes the piss out of Soprano-type things.

All this aside, I feel like this is a nearly impossible law to enforce. First, cashiers at big-box electronics stores—no offense—generally don't give a shit who buys what. Second, parents can easily sneak this past the most watchful of customer service specialists: just tap on your Blackberry whilst waiting in line. Look busy and important. Nobody will mess with you.

The moral of this story is: God bless the United States.

[via: Game Politics]