Lax games retail laws ‘damaging children’, claims MP

A Conservative MP has claimed that laws preventing retailers supplying youngsters with violent video games are not strict enough – and said that they are ‘damaging children’.

Tory MP David Ruffley claims to have ‘uncovered new research’ which shows that not a single retailer has received a caution for selling inappropriate video games or DVDs to underage consumers.

According to the Daily Mail, Ruffley found that only eight fines were imposed in the nine years studied in the research.

Mr Ruffley, the Tories' police reform spokesman and MP for Bury St Edmunds, said:

"Selling 18+ rated violent computer games such as Grand Theft Auto IV to underage children is more likely when many retailers have no fear of being caught, as my figures demonstrate.

"This poor enforcement of the law is damaging to children. But I'm not surprised when officers are overwhelmed by a colossal amount of red tape."

In March, Dr Tanya Byron told MCV that she wasn’t recommending any change in retail law as part of her Government-endorsed Review of the industry.