Under 17 buying M games

Only 20 percent of kids under 17 were able to buy "M"-rated games in the United States this year, according to a government report out Thursday.

The Federal Trade Commission report studied kids' success at buying tickets to R-rated movies or purchasing R-rated DVDs, mature CDs, and M-rated games. In every case, the FTC found the success rate had dropped over every previous year it conducted its study.

But nowhere was the drop sharper than with games.

According to the study, while 20 percent of under-17 kids were able to buy M-rated games in 2008, the number had been 42 percent in 2006 and between 60 percent and more than 80 percent in previous studies.