Afaik, ESRB is a -guideline-. You can buy an M game for your teenager kid. The said teenager kid can buy a M rated game himself as well.
Unless there's a law that allows them to deny you service based on your age, you can sue them.
That would be interesting test case for industry voluntary guide lines.
It would have ramification on all media industry. If you won, then it would let let 17< into nc-17 (rare, but that would be the ramification).
It would possibly even affect pornography age resctrition laws.
On a personal thing, please don't sue the ersb. Their a small non profit group doing there best to stop state regulation from all media. We don't need FCC for video games, music, or movies. Hell, we don't need it for tv and radio. (They should stick to the their actually much needed job, of regulating the em bandwidth.)
AFAIK, the R rating is enforced by law. In addition, I think M rated games get covered by obsenity laws, but I am not sure on that one. I do know that any store can refuse service, it just has to be across the board. Discrimination for age is reasonable in the eyes of the law. Just look at those 16 year olds being prosecuted as adults for trasmitting naked pictures of themselves.
For the porn, your NEVER going to get that law changed, even though its silly.
I must agree with the not suing the ESRB. They are pretty much the last thing left before gaming becomes as bad as movies with ratings.
No its not. The MPAA rating system is very similar ERSB, in that it up to the theater to follow them. Completely voluntary. Now, no theater will accept a movie without an MPAA rating, much how major retailers won't sell games without an ERSB rating.
However, my independent movies, or independent games don't need a rating. (On how its voluntary even if the distribution centers require it.)
I'll through this out there, why is the age requirement silly for porn?
Admittedly I've been looking at porn since I was 14. However, being older I can recognized it as being inappropriate for minors.