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Shop keepers have been caught on camera handing porn to children as young as 13 - illegally selling underage adult magazines, including Hustler, Playboy, fetish titles and one labelled Kinky 40-Plus.
One Tauranga dairy sold R18 material to a 15-year-old, even after he revealed his age.
In an unusual move, the Department of Internal Affairs said it would investigate the 11 shop keepers busted by the television show Target in the sting, which covered 14 stores in four cities over two weekends in February and April.
"The results of this latest Target survey are disturbing, and we will be in touch with the retailers identified in the programme," a DIA statement said.
"While the department prefers voluntary compliance, retailers should be aware that we will prosecute if that approach is not working."
Target producer Simon Roy said two actors were sent to stores in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga and Mt Maunganui to try to buy restricted magazines.
The actors, aged 15 and 13, used an Eftpos card that was programmed not to work, so sales were not finalised, and the actors could not break the law.
But retailers must ask for identification before selling restricted magazines with pornographic content.
Eleven of the 14 stores would have sold porn to the 15-year-old - and three of those also tried to sell to the younger boy, sent there three weeks later.
"A 13-year-old! It was just surreal that they would sell to him," Roy said.
David Wilson, Information and Policy Manager for the Office of Film and Literature Classification, said most pornographic magazines were "de facto R18" - sold in sealed bags or labelled R18 - even if they had not been formally classified.
That meant retailers had to check for ID and could not sell to anyone under 18.
If caught selling to underage customers, shop keepers faced a $10,000 fine or three months in jail - businesses could be hit with a $25,000 fine.
Roy said the magazines the actors tried to buy contained explicit, graphic sex.
But at most dairies, the actors were given barely a glance.
Many of the businesses filmed had disputed the programme's findings, sending letters through lawyers or "playing the race card".
"It's really just a wake-up call to shop owners. They have to have a little bit of responsibility for what they're selling - [like with] cigarettes or party pills."
* Target, TV3 Tuesday, 7.30pm
