Almost a fifth of all GTA IV sales were to children, a report published today by Nielson Games reveals.

Surveying gamers that purchased the 18-rated title, Nielson claims that 17% of its respondents were aged between 7 and 16, with 69% of those young gamers worryingly indicating that they had bought the adult game themselves.

The report blamed people who were ignorant to ESRB ratings, stating that the remaining 39% of underage players were bought GTA IV by friends or relatives, of which 80% of them were their parents.

So by our reckoning (and with a little help from VGChartz) there’s at least 1.7 million of you out there playing GTA IV who shouldn’t be. And by the amount of high-pitched voices we hear as we continue to get our arse handed to us during our daily Cops N Crooks sessions, that’s probably correct.

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