Grand Theft Auto for 12 year old?

[pharmachameleon]

My 12 year old DS is going on and on asking if he can have GTA. He says a lot of his friends have it. I've initially said no as I'm concerned about the violence, language and sexual content however he tells me this is only on 'story mode' and there's nothing bad on the online mode. I have no clue and I'm still instinctively wanting to refuse. Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks!

We are fairly Liberal in terms of gaming.

We have a complete Gta ban in our house for anyone.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz to be honest, I won't be buying the new one when it's released. GTA5 went too far even for me.

I'm enjoying assassins creed Valhalla right now. Playing as a woman, no obsessive misogyny, I've not had to torture anyone to complete game play!

My brother works for Rockstar (and yes his name is in the credits for GTA) and he was shocked when he found out my ex was letting the kids play GTAV years ago when at his house.

He's been there for years so our family have enjoyed the GTA games for a while now, but we still avoided the kids even watching certain parts of it when they were younger. They're older now and neither are interested in it any more though.

DS is 30 now but he was in the final year of school when he played these game so 15-16, he lost interest in playing games when he was about 18-19

There is NO 'ok' version of this disgusting game. My dh tried to convince me there was and I sat and watched. Apparently he'd 'only be driving around'. Well I can tell you the swearing and language got bad after about ten secs! I would never let a child play it.

Hell no

You can play it in a way that's just car chases

So if a parent is prepared to sit with the DC all the time every time, in order to check that they stick to the suitable content, then its OK

But if you're not up for that, or can't be sure you can make the game inaccessible when neither of you is available, then don't do it.

It's how we started, but DC was 15/16 at the time. AFAIK he doesn't play the criminal/excessively violent game (over 18 now, and I haven't heard him playing it at all for yonks)

Fuck no. It's not suitable for children. I think age 15 would be the absolute minimum. Most of the game is shooting people, running over prostitutes, stealing.

My parents were quite struck today with me growing up compared to my friends, I often wasn’t allowed to do what they were (this was well before GTA days, mind!)

I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but what I taught me was how to get around the rules and to have a healthy disrespect for authority. Which wasn’t exactly what they intended, but etc useful life lessons nonetheless. I’m convinced he will find a way to play it anyway, I know I would have- even more so if my Mum had told me no. He’s already been shown the limits of manipulation- ‘Won’t play it in story mode etc.’, so I bet he’ll move on to being devious and cunning.

@pharmachameleon

Glad to have helped.

Gaming is like any other type of media, books, TV, cinema - some are designed for children, some are suitable for children and adults some are only suitable for adults.

I read 1984 when I was 12/13 I was capable pf reading it but there were themes that passed me by.

there were themes that passed me by

That’s a key part about considering suitability of anything.
The ‘age’ element may not be noticed by some (and also just because something is 18 and I’m well beyond that age it doesn’t mean I want to see it!!)

Its been some time since I checked a games ratings, but there at least back then was the potential of a film type rating plus a game rating depending on the ‘cinematography’ of cut scenes etc
There can also be difficulty type recommendations and content related ratings

Responsibility really does need to lie with ‘responsible’ adults to understand how and why anything is rated
The problem lies in peer pressure when the lines are blurred without that responsibility being taken

….. and if you deem a particular game as ok with a particular under age child are they also responsible enough to not boast about it?

Once they get to about 15 its very difficult to stop them watching or playing these games as they are out and about at different friends houses, you can stop them at home but not easily anywhere else

That's enough for me.

I've played it in the "non-storyline" mode. It's a different experience. You don't have missions to complete, and there are no computer-controlled characters in the game (other than very superficial pedestrians wandering around). You are interacting only with the other players online in the landscape of the game (NYC in the one I played). If there's any violence it's because you or the other players unleash it on each other! You can treat it like a giant game of paintball, or you can go racing cars against each other. There were no prostitutes anywhere.

I used to work there. Absolute no way from me until min 16. You should see what the bbfc/pegi makes the developers take out of games. My ds knows not to even ask. I'll allow pegi 16 games because thats usually swearing or fighting but GTA allows you to batter a prostitute to death once you've shagged her if you don't fancy paying. Nope.

Buying it to play this way is still putting money into the pockets of game designers who think murdering a prostitute to get out of paying them for the blow job they just gave you should even be part of a game.

The online option is more of a roleplay really. No missions. You own venues, run drugs, rob places...

So not much different to Frogger.