[TornadicManiac]

So with the upcoming release of GTA V on the 17th of September I took the time to think about the implications of such a game. Now in the news recently there have been many cases of violence where the guilty party was "playing GTA" prior to commiting the crimes. Most news companies roll with the story that the game has influenced the guilty party to commit such crimes. Most recently it was, I think, a 10 year old shooting someone else in real life.

When I went in my local Game store some months back to preorder GTA V, there was a mother and an 11/12yo kid - The parent preordered GTA V for the kid. What will happen is on the release, the parent will go in and buy the game then give it to the 11/12yo to play. Does the parent not realise what a game such as GTA involves?

Now GTA and other games are rated 18 in the UK for good reason! Stores have to legally ensure that the person buying the game is of age for the rating. Now of course, most stores will sell a game to a parent regardless if they know that game is going to someone underaged.

Another point is that if an adult were to buy alcohol - another 18+ rated product in the UK - for a minor, they could be charged as this is a crime. Should the same apply to games?

So I pose the question, who is to blame for underage people playing games such as GTA?

The person who makes the games? - Should they make it clearer what the game entails? Should they be responsible for what their game causes in real life?

The Parents? - Should they really be buying games that are rated 18 for underaged minors? Should they look into the games more prior to purchase?

The Stores? - Should they sell to parents knowing that the game is going to the child? Should they impose stricter purchasing requirements on certain games?

I'm looking to hear from 18+ gamers, younger gamers, store owners and parents alike on the matter. Thought I'd raise a point that has been bugging me for a little while - please, feel free to comment but keep the trolling, arguments and slanging matches at bay.

[0820497]

I would say it's the parents fault for the most part not looking out for thier child's well being, and letting them play any game they want and watch whatever they want. The game company is also at fault as it should clearly label what is in the game, and give warnings to underaged players.

[Unbound]

They should print on the case in bold letters all the no no stuff in the game.

[Meowrocket]

I also believe that it is mainly the adult's fault, because they're the ones allowing them to play it. But the problem here is sometimes the parents themselves DON'T KNOW their child is playing it. In fact, when I was younger I was staying over at my grandmother's house and my grandfather put me in front of his computer and taught me how to play GTA.
I was about 7 at the time.
There's no real good way to combat this, as you can't just ban old people from buying games.
Sure it'd help a little if you stopped parents from buying it for their children, but it most definitely won't stop the problem.

-Meow

[Aelcalan]

The game company is also at fault as it should clearly label what is in the game, and give warnings to underaged players.

They should print on the case in bold letters all the no no stuff in the game.

There's pretty decent ratings systems in place in most of the video gaming world, and it's typically FAR more prominently placed than a movie's rating. As in, a big ol' box on the front of the package, and a bigger box on the back with a descriptor of just what kind of content is in the game; I particularly like how PEGI (Europe) handles this: they've got a simple system of symbols, like a syringe for drug use, "*@#$" for swearing, etc. The ESRB in America also has a list of written descriptors, though I'm convinced that "Suggestive Themes" is actually more like "A boy and girl TALK too each other, ooh!". The biggest problem with the ratings systems is that parents just DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT. I would suggest that stores, particularly gaming stores, and also when someone is buying a console, should be more aggressive about explaining what's already in place.

Of course, parents should actually being doing their job and PARENTING in the first place. I really can't fathom NOT being aware of what you child is watching/reading/playing/listening to, but some people apparently don't care. I think, however, that we'll see this become less of an issue for video games, since people that grew up as gamers are starting to have kids of their own, and will actually know to check out the ratings/understand what they mean. I personally know at least one adult who thought they were difficulty descriptors. But anyways, there are a lot of games that probably wouldn't be a problem if parents either a) played it with the kid or b) talked to them about it. I (disclaimer: I am not a parent...yet) would probably be willing to let an intelligent 13 year old play certain M rated games (Shin Megami Tensei) on the condition that we discuss it periodically, and if anything bothers them. But then again, I'm VERY familiar with the content of that particular series, so it's an informed decision for me.

As a brief side note, when I bought Final Fantasy VIII, my mother absolutely scoured the case, and DID read the ratings stuff. She still made my dad watch me play the first few minutes, to ensure that there were no "naked ladies" *cough*shivaandsiren*cough*

The one thing I absolutely don't want to see happen is for the government to get involved. I don't think they've got the familiarity with games to properly structure a ratings system that's any better than what's already in place, and it'd throttle creativity to actually be legally required to comply.

[ColdF3ar]

I somewhat agree with 08 here. Its defiantly the fault of the parents.

Parents! Watch. Your. [censored]. Kids.

The game developers are not at fault here. They do their job by only selling the game to 18+ people who are legally able to purchase. What happens afterwards is not under their control. It is the job of the parents who are acting as the legal guardians to watch what happens. If the parents allow the children to play this game, which can be fine, then they have to make sure their child understands that there is a very distinct difference from how you act in game and how you act with others.

Or altogether, maybe you don't let your underage child play games that are not age appropriate!

You don't give your 10 year old child vodka because they are physically and mentally not able to handle the results yet. Once they reach an okay age then thats fine. Im not arguing that they should wait to be exactly 18 to play 18+ games, I'm just saying just saying that they should wait until the day that they are able to handle such mature content, which is at least like 16ish for something like this.

[eah]

Sometimes older people don't understand GTA entirely either and they may have no people in their life (i.e. parents) to have a discussion. If the developers haven't already, they need to take an hour of their time to add warning labels to the game container, the game advertisements, and to the game itself. Just as how some consoles will warn you of epileptic seizures, regulated playtime, and tying the controller to your wrist, there needs to be an announcement for GTA and similar games. Something like "The actions, events, and dialogue portrayed following this message are for entertainment purposes only and do not represent life outside of the game" would suffice.

Parents need to play a roll too as kids will often ignore warning signs and lack understanding. A child can easily do things to endanger him or herself. When you don't talk, they're like unwatched babies. Before you know it, they'll have swallowed a lego piece or stuck a knife in the wall socket. It is the parents responsibility to teach values, morals, and lessons of survival.

I do believe most 10-year-olds can play GTA without a problem. I think the situations where kids do something crazy are extreme cases. The parents may have done nothing or even pointed the child in the wrong direction. Pit bulls are not born killers; they are coaxed that way.

The youtube ad for GTA V actually appealed to me. It seemed like a lot of effort was put into the role-playing and graphics, but I've never known why GTA exists in the first place... It has real physics, real cars, and real environment. Why does it need to allow blowing pedestrians sky high, stealing cars, or evading the police? I can understand adapting life-like physics because life-like physics is familiar. On the other hand, the above mentioned crimes are not familiar. In fact, in many societies, crimes are thought to be a bad thing... it's like GTA is made to be an encourager of real criminal activity. Why not make the pedestrians look like goombas and koopas and change the look and name of the guns to be sic-fi? GTA draws a parallel which doesn't and shouldn't exist.

[WMBOClan]

Honestly I dont care for the entire gta series.

For half a semester I worked in a school with grade 5/6 kids. One thing I learned when I was there was that they are hugely influenced by the media. Part of their day was writing short stories. Almost every day they would be writing new ones base on what ever they wanted. Generally is was video games such as minecraft and slender. That was all they would write about. It made me sad seeing that they are wasting to best years of their lives inside playing video games. The hardly ever talked about anything else. The rules for writing such stories was to keep it school appropriate. All the kids were interested in was video games. I personally didn't play video games much until I was 11 or 12 when I got my ps2. My days were spent down at the local bmx track(built by my friends and I) Its hard to really say that kids shouldn't be exposed to video games until they are mature enough, but honestly kids now days don't spend enough time outside. My dad would always take me on atv rides and we went hunting and fishing and we build things in the garage. The school I was working at was the center of a 'poorer' area. From what I saw parents would rather sit their kid in front of a tv than to tale the effort and entertain them properly. And that isnt right. In an environment like that kids wont devolope the skill necessary to function in everyday life. Social skill will lack as well as others.

My 2 cents worth

[jeniansmom]

Parents for sure.
My son is 15. My husband and I have always monitored what he plays, what he watches (online and movies) and adjusted our limits based on his maturity level and ability to handle more and more mature content.

But we are also involved parents in that we communicate with his teachers. Every year there is a certain level of surprise from one or more of his teachers when we meet them and tell them to please contact us if there are any issues or concerns that they feel we can help with on the home front. (And ya there have been issues in the past, he's human after all, and we have worked with the schools and with him to get through them). Oh ya, that raises the point that we also communicate with him and let him know our expectations and ask how he feels about things, what he thinks he is ready for.

We are by no means perfect parents, but I get really ticked off seeing the number of parents who don't want to know what's going on with their kids, let alone be bothered to take responsibility and actually parent their children.

/end rant/

[Ratta237]

It really depends on the child and parents should know that.
One twelve year old might be more mature than another of the same age. It differs wildly.
I, personally, think that no one under the age of thirteen should be playing GTA V.
Plus, it's not always the parent to blame. I've seen on many occasions older siblings buying 18+ content for their younger siblings.