A new survey by Nielsen has revealed that despite the mostly successful enforcement of game ratings in retail stores like GameStop and Best Buy, M-rated titles are still ending up in the hands of underage gamers.

The survey, which focused on Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), reports that about 17% of the respondents who had purchased the game were between the ages of 7 and 16. Of the underage gamers, 61% said they bought the game themselves while the remaining 39% said that someone else bought the game for them.

What's particularly interesting is that according to the Nielsen report, "parents/guardians were pegged as the biggest facilitators for getting the controversial game into the hands of these young respondents, garnering 80% of the response. Friends, siblings and other relatives rounded out the other 20% of the response."

The report also touched on the effects of Microsoft's exclusive GTA4 DLC on their respondents' purchase decisions. The DLC was the deciding factor for 25% of those who bought the game's Xbox 360 version, while 64% said they just preferred the Xbox 360 version over the PS3 version.

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• NPD May results finally out: PS3 overtakes Xbox 360, GTAIV for Xbox 360 still leading

Buy: [Grand Theft Auto 4 (PS3)]
Buy: [Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360)]