To not let my 13 yo DS have the 18 certificate game Grand Theft Auto

[GinnyW]

Apparently, all of my DS’s friends have this game. I am wary on so many levels. It has a high level of swearing and drug use among other “adult themes”. He is a genuinely sweet kid still, just turned 13 and I am concerned that this game is way too old for him.
AIBU He should have this 18 certificate game or AINBU and he is way too young.

Not RTFT but games have ratings for a reason. And 13 is too young to play an 18 game. There are plenty of games that are suitable.

Also worth looking at European ratings for games and films if you are not sure. Sometimes things are rated 15 or 18 here because of shock horror sex but they're more relaxed and give it a PG! In which case you can take a view. But GTA - god no. I'd raise my eyebrows at ds playing it now and he's 18, simply because of its content, how can it remotely be fun.

My 12yo SS plays it (not my choice but choice of parents) and tbh he’s taken a lot of his behaviour and what he says from the game. In the game there is gambling, sex, drugs, horrific language and violence, I don’t find it appropriate at all.

They do all play it though, my SS plays with all his mates who are all the same age.

If he has an Xbox and has gamepass it’s currently free to download. Just a word of warning to parents if they don’t have parental controls on the Xbox.

I’ve played all the GTA games and I wouldn’t let him- not because of the swearing/violence/nudity/drugs, but because he doesn’t want to play the story mode, he will want to play GTA online with his mates, which opens up real life violent people, most of whom are adults, being able to contact a child and befriend them through a game....

I’ve let my 13yr old DD drive about and do some races or random things in the game, but I sat beside her the whole time. There are a few specific games I’ll let her play online, but GTA isn’t one of them.

At 16, definitely.

I didn't let DS have it at 13, I used to play the original version which was much less graphic and was not keen on him seeing the depiction of women that it showed in the modern console version. He stopped asking after a while, then at 16 I mentioned he could have it if he wanted because he had matured a bit and he was no longer interested. He eventually bought it himself at 20 and found it boring so gave it away.

My boys all played it from about 13. And so have all their mates.

For context my boys are high achieving private school kids with a mixture of mates from theirs and other schools. They are all late teens/early 20s now and I don't think GTA has ever had any kind of negative impact on them. They were always able to distinguish fictional games from reality.

They rarely play it now, the only time I ever hear about it is when they spot a car and say, "I've got that car on GTA"!

Thinking about it, my sons all got way more worked up and "shouty" from their rooms when playing FIFA than GTA.

FIFA created all sorts of bad moods and swearing in our house!

My DSS had it and played, but was older. He said not to let DD play and he wouldn't play it in our house until she was asleep as he said both the language and some of the tasks/storylines are just awful and misogynistic.
13 is too young.

...how can it remotely be fun

Have you played it? I presume not. It's an awesome game. Amazing graphics and attention to detail.

I have always said no. It's an 18 for a reason. He is 13. Peer pressure is a terrible thing.

I told my DC that they will never own GTA while they live in my house. What they do/play at friends houses is up to them.

This is the game where the player can get a blow job from a hooker then murder her to avoid paying right?

I played the original when it was stick men and matchbox cars from birds eye view. The worst thing it had was car jacking with your stick man😆 and doing drug drops/collection. Really not like it is now. I’ve heard there is a rape in the last version. I don’t know as I won’t allow it in my house. How do people sleep at night making games like this. It’s disgusting. The other thing all the young kids are doing is watching graphic horror movies. What are their parents thinking?

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

I told my DC that they will never own GTA while they live in my house. What they do/play at friends houses is up to them.

This is the game where the player can get a blow job from a hooker then murder her to avoid paying right?

Or you can pay her, then murder her to get your money back.

That's a tiny and irrelevant part of the game though. The misogyny and violence towards women is not what the story is about, it's just that you can choose to do that if you're that way inclined.

I love GTA V but tend not to pick up prostitutes because there are more interesting things to do, like holding up petrol stations then blasting them in the face even if they give me their money, or holing up somewhere you can pick off wave after wave of police officers. That's the thing with GTA, you can make your own entertainment (my favourite being trying to kill police with every weapon in the game before they take me out).

It's not a game suitable for younger teenagers, that's why it's rated 18.

That's a tiny and irrelevant part of the game though. The misogyny and violence towards women is not what the story is about, it's just that you can choose to do that if you're that way inclined

It's not irrelevant though is it? Someone, in some game Corp. decided to put these functions into a game. That is played by young adults.

no game should have misogyny or violence towards women.

I've played this years ago when it first came out, not my sort of thing, thought it was disgusting and absolute crap. I certainly wouldn't let an under 18 play it.

Another parent here who didn't buy that game for my DS when he was a young teen. He got it for his 18th birthday.

Unfortunately some other parents did cave to the nagging. If DS had a sleepover with a friend I knew had the game, I said it was ok for him to have a go (very difficult to object remotely to the choices others make for their own DC). I didn't allow sleepovers with these friends until DS was 16+.

Luckily DS preferred FIFA.

I won't have it in my house. DS can be 24 still living with us and I still won't have it inside these walls.

Jeez. Whatever happened to zapping aliens? If those are the options for a 'game' then it sounds sicko central.

Tell your kid he can play such games in his own house where he will make the rules.

As regards the European ratings mentioned above, GTA is also an 18 in Germany (which, perhaps surprisingly, is often less strict in these things than the UK).

Who actually parents on the basis of what other kids parents (apparently) do rather than considering the suitability for themselves? Just because other kids are playing a horrific, violent, sexist game doesn't mean I'm going to let mine, anymore than I'd let them stay out to midnight or jump of car bonnets just because their friends do.

It's a great game but very much an 18 for a reason.

And it's very much satire, and it's very much tongue in cheek. If you don't like the content that's fine, but pearl-clutching about how the developers sleep at night is fucking ridiculous.

My DS14 plays FIFA, Minecraft, Fortnite and still enjoys Sonic and Mario games. Thankfully he’s never asked for GTA.

You know how mature your son is and how he would react to content like this. Assess for yourself whether you think he'll be ok with it.

I think the posters forbidding anyone a day under 18 from playing it are a bit much.

I'm amazed that kids in 2021 are still asking for this game. Even the most recent version is now almost a decade old.

I have to add that my DS was nearly 14 at the time and only did the driving part not the sleazy strip club part.
And I know he didn't play that part without my knowledge. He doesn't play it any more and hasn't for ages.
But yes in hind sight it probably wasn't the wisest decision