To clarify...
As someone who's had the misfortune of being a sales monkey in one of the major games retailers for a few years, I'm going to clear up some of the misconceptions on this issue that I'm seeing in these comments:
- Previously, most games were already rated by the BBFC, making it against the law to sell them to anyone below the age rating. If you were caught selling a game to somebody underage, you could be fined up to £5000 and face 6 months in jail. The only thing new here is that this now applies to the PEGI ratings, which it didn't before, as the BBFC ratings are being dropped. Previously, staff in my retailer were instructed to treat the PEGI rating the same as the BBFC rating, so if someone can't prove their age, no sale.
- Making it illegal for someone to buy an age rated title for a kid is not going to solve anything and is a perfect example of trying to solve a problem by throwing legislature at it, something the current government seems to love doing. How can anyone expect a store worker to be able to tell if an adult is buying a game for a kid, let alone prove it? A parent will just argue, kick up a fuss and demand to speak to the manager, saying they're buying it for themselves, not little Billy standing beside them. This will never work. Parents need to be better educated (and actually do some damn parenting rather than buying GTA for little Billy), but sadly, most parents in this country are ignorant and frankly couldn't give a crap, as long as they can buy something to shut their kids up and keep them distracted for a while.
As for kids proving how old they are? Simple - if you can't prove you're 18 (for example), then no sale. That's always how it works in my ex-employer for example. Admittedly it's harder to prove you're 12 than 16 or 18 due to the lack of ID for people that age, but there are cards out there that can be used, such as the Citizencard or whatever it's called. Besides, with all these databases that Brown and Co have dreamed up it shouldn't be too hard to pull enough data off them to create an age verification card for children....