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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

in not allowing my 15 and 12 year old to play grand theft auto

51 replies

floaty · 07/12/2008 11:11

I have always banned this game,I just feel the whole premise is horrible and inappropriate.
Ds1 came home with a copy from a friends house yesterday,they apprently now have Xbox and don't want the ps2 version ,they have children same age as mine and seem to think it is fine,am I being ridiculous ?

OP posts:
2AdventSevenfoldShoes · 07/12/2008 18:56

needmorecoffee agree about the too much time on their hands.
I have always had bigger fish to fry.
ds plays online as well(xbox 360) never tried my self, I oly like tony hawkes and ssx tricky

aGalChangedHerName · 07/12/2008 18:56

Lol NMC i gave up playing years ago when Tomb Raider was all the rage. My boys tried me with COD4 and the like but i was shite i'm ashamed to say

gemmiereindeerlegs · 07/12/2008 18:58

god no YANBU. DH has got this and I don't even like him playing it when I am in the house. Definately not suitable and you should stick to your guns

2AdventSevenfoldShoes · 07/12/2008 19:02

i can't even drive the car in GTA let alone kill anyone!

aGalChangedHerName · 07/12/2008 19:20

Lol 2shoes. I was always more woried about what they ds's were up to in RL tbh.

Thankfully they are both normal and well adjusted despite playing PS3 and Xbox games

AuntieMaggie · 07/12/2008 19:40

DP has this game and I don't like him playing it either.

Any parents that think it's ok to let their children play it are mad - the whole thing is filled with violence and sex from the tasks to what the DJ says on the radio station on the game. It's ok to let your children to play a game where some of the aims are to steal cars, kill people and buy prostitutes? I don't think so.

Playing it with the volume turned down so they can't hear the swearing? thats right because the missions to kill and stuff aren't subtitled or written down are they?!!!

Just told me DP about the thing with the volume turned down and he laughed and said that wouldn't avoid the violence etc. The hint is in the name and age rating for the game.

Sorry - it just makes me so cross when parents expose their kids to this stuff when they aren't old enough to understand what they're doing.

needmorecoffee · 07/12/2008 20:00

see, I'm a gaaaaaaaaaaaaaad at first person shooters. Although could only play Doom 3 if my sons watched as it was so scary

lilolilmanchester · 07/12/2008 21:47

DS wanted it for his 15th birthday. He didn't get it after I asked about it on this thread
No, you are not being ridiculous IMO.

PingpingsatonSantasface · 08/12/2008 10:54

My God Daughter (8) plays her Dad's one on the PS3 and she is better at it than me. each to there own.

PingpingsatonSantasface · 08/12/2008 10:57

It's really not as bad as people think I have the very first one on my PC it's awesome.

shinyshoes · 08/12/2008 11:28

YANBU , however my 2 have it (11 and 8)

It's just a game.

I don't think they are likely to run off with prostitutes, steal cars, and shoot people.

TheChristmasArmadillo · 08/12/2008 11:41

YAnbu in that you can ban anything you want.

What gets to me is it's one thing to know the game and as a result allow your children to play it or not as the case may be.

The problem comes when parents have no idea about the games their kids are playing and a couple of months down the line are up in arms (when they finally bother to look at it) and want the game banned.

This is going to destroy the games industry for adult players eventually.

Australia already will not allow 18 rated computer games.

Adult gamers will find stuff aimed at them banned because people can't be bothered to look at/play/have any knowledge of games before they buy them for their children.

Ultimately it is up to the parent what games their children play, not the industry, but because of those that don't check up on it, the industry will end up being censored because they can't be bothered to actually to check out what their kids are up to and also in the style of one daily mail writer (this was a while back) - they apparently have no power to stop their kids playing games they don't like in their own home

I have no issue with parents who know the game or don't have an issue with their child playing 18 rated games when they know what they are letting themselves in for. I may not agree with it, but it's not my desicion to make.

It's the ones who get up in arms to ban the games BECAUSE of their failures as a parent I get with. Why should mine or my dp's gaming be censored because of them? I check what games my child plays, I know what I will allow and what I won't - same as films/music/books or anything else.

PingpingsatonSantasface · 08/12/2008 13:23

My bestfriend does watch what her Daughter is doing on the game. I am much worse on the game I don't do the misson I just drive around killing people and getting the police to chase me, very destressing game.

Tortington · 08/12/2008 13:25

shouldn't they be reading chaucer at that age?

Original poster
floaty · 08/12/2008 13:48

Gosh, thanks for all the replies,I am under enormous pressure from ds2 but just feel that I don't want this ganme in the house especially as i have a 7 year old as well.It is not that I think that they will go off and replicate the behaviour in real life but more that I just don't think these things are the sort of things you should treat as a game ,the more the are treated as something that is funny the less serious they will see this behaviour as in real life .Also as the only women in the house I do feel a need for them to understand that this is not how women should be treated etc.Naive probably ,but i have seen some of ds comtemporaries laughing about people on the news having cars stolen etc and I want my ds to consider this as a serious matter and not a "game"...so I think I will stick to my guns..at least that is the plan!

OP posts:
mayorquimby · 08/12/2008 14:12

yanbu to ban it from your children.

while i'd have no problem with a 15 year old playing it, i am not the parent making the decision in the scenario so would support you to the last in your right to decide whatadult material is acceptable for your children and what is not.

as someone said before me the game is aimed at adults and is rated as such. i would class it in the same mould as an 18's movie, it's bizarre, to echo an earlier post, that some parents will try to get such games banned all together based on their childrens possible exposure to it when it would never occur to them to do so over a violent movie that is classed as 18's because they fully view that as adult material where as largely due to not understaning video-games they somehow think that every video game made is aimed at children regardless of it's rating and that their is some sort of machiavellien plan to trick parents into buying the games for their kids.theirs not, yes they want to make the most amount of money possible, but it is the retailers that are the point of sale,just like alcohol and tobacco, and it is they who have the responsibility to ensure that only adults are sold this product.

ByTheSea · 08/12/2008 14:18

I don't let my DS1-13 have it although I know some of his friends have it. He has asked for Resistance 2 for Christmas though, and that is rated 18 and after a bit of research, I think I'll let him have it. It is much more monsters and fantasy themed and he can handle that.

claw3 · 08/12/2008 14:31

yanbu its your choice.

My 15 year old plays it and he wants to be a policeman when he leaves school!

janeite · 08/12/2008 16:35

V good post Floaty. I am stonished that some parents think it is okay for young children to play this. Okay, they may not go out and become rapists or serial killers but the games must surely affect their empathy levels. And if these things are condoned by parents, how much further will these children go AWAY from their parents: as they will need to rebel somehow and if fields like this are already permissable to them, what will they need to do to push the boundaries?

twoluvlysnowmen · 08/12/2008 16:37

yanbu.
I don't let ds (14) have it, although he has played it elsewhere and he "knows" of 7 yr olds who have it.
allegedly.

Tortington · 08/12/2008 16:57

my son played it a couple of years ago he was about 13.5 it affected his empathy levels about the same as watching wiley coyote blow the shit out of himself, or watch daffy uck get shot or TOM getting his fingers trapped by jerry before he whacks him with a frying pan.

[rolls eyes emoticon]

janeite · 08/12/2008 18:30

Rolls eyes back at Custy. They're hardly in the same league though. Will have to agree to disagree.

Maybe the problems come when teenagers who aren't necessarily getting the "filtering" and dialogue from their parents (as I know yours do: I have huge respect for your views on parenting teens) are let loose on games like this.

Tortington · 08/12/2008 23:05

janite, i love the way you disagree with me, please please disagree more often

pointydog · 08/12/2008 23:13

YANBU

janeite · 09/12/2008 18:13

Awww Custy. What shall we disagree on next? Do you have any views on Jane Austen perhaps? Or early weening? Or WOHM versus SAHM!