by DAVID BROWN
Children as young as 11 are being illegally sold computer games featuring graphic sex and violence, a survey by a consumer watchdogs has found.
Games featuring pimping, drug dealing, terrorism and joyriding which can legally be sold only to adults were freely available to children in one in seven Harrow shops checked.
An investigation by Brent and Harrow trading standards service found well-known high street stores were among those prepared to sell games such as Grand Theft Auto and Duke Nukem.
John Taylor, director of Brent and Harrow Trading Standards Service, said: "I am concerned that these games are so freely available to children.
"The very nature of the product means often only the children themselves have the necessary technical skills to access fully the features of a game.
"The only chance parents get to make informed choices as to what their children play with is at the time of purchase."
Supplying age-restricted games is a breach of the Video Recordings Act 1984, which carries a maximum fine of £5,000 or six months in jail.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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