Grand Theft Auto V – Parents, You’ve Been Warned

Only a few days ago, the fifth installment of the popular game Grand Theft Auto was released. The new Grand Theft Auto V quickly made its way to the news and the headlines after it scored the unheard of $800 million in sales in just 24 hours of its launch.

But the high revenue is not really surprising. Grand Theft Auto V  is really engaging. The game features some amazing graphics and the characters are extremely well-developed. In addition, GTA 5 offers jokes here and there and the missions in it are very diverse. Also, after a particular moment, the story in the game starts to resemble a movie. As a result, the gamer wants to find out what will happen next and next, and next…. Well, that is not surprising either. After all, more than $275 million were poured into the production and development of the title. That is more than the budgets of some of today’s most popular Hollywood films. Gaming is a top-erforming industry!

The Problem

Although the Grand Theft Auto games are thrilling, they are M-rated. This means that they are suitable only for mature audience over 17 years (or 18 in some countries). The fifth edition of the game doesn’t show a reduced the amount of violence, sexual scenes and illegal activities. That is even though children make up a huge part of GTA fans.

Some of you would probably oppose that Grand Theft Auto should not be played by kids. That is because many of us have tried out an M-rated game title before the age of 17. However, GTA 5 takes things too far. It does not “simply” include murders or robberies. It shows it all – from arsons, strip clubs and bank robberies to violence, murder, drug use, sex and various illegal activities. Maybe in the United States, many parents don’t mind, but elsewhere around the world where real life is much more peaceful it really matters. No kid should be exposed to a game that instructs the player to torture another character by pulling out his teeth. And this is just one of the many shocking scenes which gamers encounter when they play Grand Theft Auto V.

What will these scenes and actions in Grand Theft Auto V teach your children? It will bombard them with all the things that should not be done in life. However, instead of giving them a lesson that they are wrong and could lead to terrible consequences, the game will actually encourage them to perform it them themselves. Yes, the activities are limited to a virtual world. Nevertheless, kids’ minds are like sponges. They quickly absorb information and, most importantly, they absorb different behavior models. The worst part is that they then try to mirror everything they see… in real life.

The ones who should be extremely careful here are parents. Kids cannot go and buy an M-rated titles on their own. Their parents need to do that for them. The sad part is most of them do it without even having read anything about the game or tested it themselves. Therefore, mums and dads should find a good amount of information on any video game they plan to buy for their kids. In addition, if they are fans of GTA, they should avoid playing it in front of their children. That can be as bad as letting them play it themselves.

It is true that Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most addicting and commercially successful M-rated games today. It is also true that this is neither the first violence-filled game production, nor will it be the last. Despite that, it offers questionable values and moral to which no child should be exposed.