GTA6

[Theverysmolkitty]

Would I be unreasonable to think this game should be made to have both facial age checks and a credit card age check to help prevent young people accessing it?

I'm aware some parents will do this for their kids but I feel the games themselves are well known for being deeply misogynistic and it's very concerning that the female protagonist is highly likely to be subject to awful things and used for player gratification.

I don't think banning the game is right but in the world of MRAs,incels and Tate this game isn't going to help.

As usual, people who have never played the game in their life is criticising it. You are even deciding on what it’s about even though we don’t know yet. Pathetic really

I don't see how it matters if I've played it, I'm not asking for a ban just age checks and since it's an 18 I don't see how it would be an issue and would safeguard some children.

It matters because you are making statements without knowing anything about the game. You are basing everything on what you read on here and certain media outlets

I feel like those who take BBFC certification as an absolute hard and fast rule are some of the most pathetic.

So the videos of RDR2 where you can assault a Suffragette or the many videos of GTA5 showing the ability to commit violence against women are fake?

Why would we expect 6 to suddenly be different?

Spotify age gates music so I don't see how my suggestion is any different. I could understand the vitriol if I was asking for a complete ban.

you don’t have to do all that stuff and you can do that in any game. You would have to really go out your way to do that. I have never came across having to assault a woman in GTA5 or any other one. There is far more violence against men.

You may not have to do those things but the awful types online will promote them. To clarify I've no issues with adults playing the game I just think it would be good to have more hurdles in place to prevent children accessing it

Personally I think GTA and similar video games are the cause of all violence against women and girls and if we restrict who can play them based on something fairly arbitrary like age, we will completely eradicate VAWG and there will be no need to worry about anything else.

After all, ever since Spotify age gated music all of the teenagers have become wonderful little cherubs and I’ve never once heard any of them use bad language.

I'm not that naive it was just a suggestion to create more friction for kids to access it. It's not going to eradicate VAWG and it's not a scapegoat either but I can't see how what I'm asking for is unreasonable.

Why do you not want children to play it?

What difference does it make if a 19 year old man plays it while a 17 year old doesn’t?

Do you not think playing a video game in their homes at night might actually be a good thing for children, considering all of the things that could happen to them - and the things they could do - in the real world?

I was a young teenager very shortly before smart phones and social media were ubiquitous. Some of the things the kids in my year got up to with each other were shocking.

Why does it matter if they watch porn then or have access to any adult media?

That’s what I’m asking you.

Thanks for at least being civil. I think those types of content are harmful to those under 18 I understand my point of view isn't absolute though.

Would you answer the question too?

Mumsnet is so weird these days.

Yes it is an 18, so it should be gated behind restrictions. If parents decide to buy it for their kids, that is on them.

Misogyny and violence and against women and girls is an epidemic and damages all of society. Games which normalise this contribute to rape culture. How would we feel about games that deliberately facilitated the fantasy of attacking of people of colour? Enforcing to any degree an age restriction is not good enough, but if it stops even 1% of young men from taking part in this, it is worth it.

I mean, in RDR2, it's heavily implied that Arthur gets drugged and raped by a man – an encounter that, unless you already knew to avoid it, will play out whether you like it or not. Whereas gamers have a choice to assault the suffragette.

RDR2 is, imo as a radical feminist who has always felt tension between my feminist beliefs and games/gamer culture, a work of art in terms of both gameplay and story.

The GTA games are fun to play, but far more gratuitous, deeply satirical, and with plenty of 'isms' of all types. I have a feeling that while GTA6 will still be gratuitous, and sexualise both Jason and Lucia (in addition to other characters, in a way that may irritate me and make me rant, especially being a fictionalised Miami), it will also be a somewhat more 'serious' story with well-developed and complex characters.

I think it's important for non-gamers to realise that are lot of games are intrinsically violent – yes, you can kill women but also men, across a variety of games. You can run down pedestrians. You can hog-tie people and throw them in a lake. You can slaughter innocents and buy their houses to rent out. You can take the ladder out of the pool and watch them drown.
So saying you can beat up a suffragette really doesn't mean much within the broader context of the game itself.

I played GTA from 1 onwards, from the age of about 12, and it didn't do me any harm (although I and 2 were top down, and very different). Really though, something like Roblox, with all the child predators online and the predatory purchases, or Fortnite with its lootboxes that hook kids on gambling, are probably more harmful than GTA6 will be.

Besides, facial checks are easily circumvented, and credit card checks – well, I don't know how they work. I'm not against a credit card check – I don't think kids under 14 or 15 should be playing GTA (I know the rating is older). But I think the environment at home is more important.

To add to my above post though – I'm not against age gating the game, of course. I'm just not sure how well that works, with digital copies.

What a bizarre post 😂
1: under 18 could also mean 6 or 12 years old not not just 17!
2: Gosh yeah there’s nothing “safe” for a teenager to do other than being sat on a screen- are you having a laugh?!

Digital games usually requires an online handshake with the developer to validate the code for the game and as far as I know rockstar have already discussed age verification for online modes of 5 and 6 so why not just the whole game?

I think many things are inappropriate for certain ages and the age ratings provide guidance.

I don’t think age gated things should be easily accessible to children but I also think people need to know what their children can or can’t deal with. I don’t have any reason to think a standard teenager of around 14 would be permanently damaged by playing GTA or watching an 18-rated film.

I don’t think it’s useful or sensible to prevent everyone who is a day under 18 from doing things they aren’t legally “allowed” to do.

I grew up with 90s shows as a child - Friends, Buffy, X Files, The Simpsons - and these were often rated 12 or 15. But I still watched them and enjoyed them and they informed my life. I can’t imagine being told I couldn’t go home after school because of a label on the box. But by the same token things like American Pie were off limits, because everything had context and nothing was a free-for-all.

I think as a society we have demonised social media and the internet and have become incredibly prudish around these things, whilst forgetting plenty of us used to smoke cigarettes at 13 and get drunk on blue WKD at 16.

I imagine age verification for the online mode would be because they really want to discourage children interacting with adults, especially with voice chat being a thing. Possibly the reason they don't want age verification otherwise is because it might put off customers given the hacks of the company in recent years, especially in regards to PC players who can pirate it instead. So just profit-related. And for most under-18s, as GTA6 is very expensive, unless they have jobs their parents would have to buy it for them anyway. It seems a rather pointless extra hoop to jump through (although again, I'm not against it, it just seems ineffective.)

But tangentially, I do think a lot of parents have inaccurate views of games like RDR2 or Roblox (for instance) if they're not gamers themselves, and haven't played the games.

If children are playing it then their console is set up as an adult account meaning that their parents condone them playing 18 rated games or are not tech savvy enough to set up parental controls. Either way, that child would just need an adult to use their face to be able to download.

You don't know what the female protagonist will be used as. The game isn't out yet. You're just assuming. You can commit violence against men and women in both RD and GTA. I've been playing GTA since I was 14, as has my husband. Neither of us are violent.

My 13 year old has it preordained already. And I'm letting him take the day off school to play it.

So the videos of RDR2 where you can assault a Suffragette

But you can also assault the sheriff, or the town drunk, or the shopkeeper, or the barman, or anybody really. They can be male or female, black white or brown. You can assault anybody. Or nobody. It's about as equal opportunities as you can get. Just because some people choose to play it in one way doesn't mean that you have to, or that anyone other than a tiny majority will. There's also videos of RDR2 where people do nothing but fishing. Or play through the entire game without killing anyone (an admittedly difficult challenge). You're judging an entire game that still has not even been released based on a potential interaction that might not exist and most people won't even do or notice.