It's all the rage now, really, the controversy over Mature 18+ games and how minors manage to get their hands on them.  GAME, a major European game retail chain, is no exception to this feeding frenzy.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, the consumer group Which? sent teenagers to a number of games, entertainment and electronic stores -- GAME, Woolsworth, and Maplin -- to test how age restrictions are handled by retailers in the UK.  All three flunked the exam, so to speak.

GAME states that they take this sort of thing very seriously, and their in-store staff receive extensive training and must heed the age-rating on every game.  The retailer has expressed disappointment over its employees failing to adhere to such rules:

"We are very disappointed that this incident occurred.  A full investigation has been conducted, and we have taken appropriate action to ensure that it does not happen again.

GAME is a responsible retailer and takes its legal obligations exceptionally seriously.

At GAME we want to sell the right games to the right customers. To ensure that this happens our store teams receive extensive and regular training about their responsibilities and our procedures to uphold the law, but this is only one element of our comprehensive systems."

Under the video recordings act, someone could receive a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a fine of 5000 GBP for selling a mature rated game to an underaged buyer.

Which? is apalled by the results of their investigations, of course, finding it "shocking and surprising" that such games would be sold to "child as young as 15 by household names."