MJW

It's down to your own personal judgement really. I wouldn't let my 11 year old daughter play it due to the sexual content, though she has played through 'The Last of Us' which is quite gritty and has some swearing and violence in it. I've never heard her swear yet, and as far as I know she hasn't shanked any of her schoolmates in the neck with a home-made shiv, so I like to think video games haven't had too much of a detrimental effect on her development.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Is it doing her any good though?

wayne9t9

RA Dunk

Already got the T-shirt for that one during the nineties!!

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

I know! The first time I heard that joke I laughed so hard I fell off my dinosaur!

chopperman

Just because you spend your GTA gaming time picking up hookers and going to the strip club doesn't mean that's how everyone plays the game tubby. My daughter likes flying the planes and driving the cars.

And before you ask, yes i am a regular in the strip club when i play it

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

My son will be 4 next week, there is no way I'd want him to play it or even see me play it. Kids are like sponges and even if you don't think they've heard something or seen something it's gone in there and can't be undone.
He saw Epic at the cinema the other week, I've not seen it, his mum took him, but I suspect his behaviour since seeing that has been influenced (running around with a imaginary sword, slicing things or something along those lines).
Even the language that the first character in GTA 5 uses is OTT for my child to hear.
I'm not going to judge anyone for how they bring their own kids up, but I'm sure as hell going to do my best to protect my son's innocence for a good few years yet.

mart360

My ten, going on 90 year old wont be allowed to play it, along with all the other age certificated games

Does it cause conflict, yes sometimes it does ,

It dosent help that the pegi system has now been adopted by games shop as the defacto standard so I have to but virtually every game.

My son plays games rated to 12.

All are vetted by myself or the other half before he plays

There are some exceptions to the rule though

Take 007 legends... how can he be allowed to watch james bond on TV but not allowed to play the game lol


Mart

chopperman

But don't the James Bond movies have killing and sexual content in them? At least with a game you get to choose what you do and see, unlike a movie.

tony de wonderful

The torture scene is wierd, it isn't 'cartoony' and humerous like much if the GTA universe. You basically just torture someone for no reason and coldy smash their knee with a pipe wrench or zap them with electrodes whilst they beg for mercy and scream their lungs out. It made me squirm a bit and I wouldn't want a kid in my care to be playing that part of the game.

hodgy0_2

That's Shocking tbh.



(but the last two b1tches had it coming)

Dingdongler

You need to get out more and get your nuts in.

rabbos

I would be fascinated to see some kind of scientific study into the effects of this game on people, but it can't be done. For now the effects are all conjecture and what people 'reckon' based upon their own (limited) experience.

One thing's for sure, video games have not yet become photorealistic and fully immersive like the fully fledged virtual environments might be in the future. It is always obvious that you are not participating in the real world, and I would think that nearly all children recognise this. When games become indistinguishable from real life, then the $hit might hit the fan...

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Not according to one child phycologist who's says that children see it as practising, rather than playing a game.

Jamz3k

Personally I think you are a pretty **** parent if you let your child play GTA 5.

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

Have to say after watching the above video I first thought it was funny but then thought what is the point of this game?

Wasn't man hunt banned because you could ram broken bottles in ladies...

Dingdongler

Rubbish. That's just a justification for being a bad parent. What do you think will happen when you expose a small child (aged 4 etc) to images of extreme violence, sex and bad language?

There is nothing positive to be gained from such games, only potential negatives.

When there are so many worthwhile things to expose your kids to ie literature, science, music, languages, sport etc anybody who decides to let their small child play violent, sexualized video games is worthless ****.

tubbytommy

iTrader: (20)

+1

zip106

Didn't Jon Venables and the other evil ******* watch 18 cert videos and games from a very early age?

RA Dunk

Nail, hit, head!!!

Spot on.

BoozyDave

iTrader: (8)

some people are just born evil and then when they do something bad, people try to find something in the past that they can 'blame' for the act of violence

i played street fighter as a kid and i don't walk down the street in pyjamas doing 'hadouken' or 'shoryuken' towards everybody

ohyainnit

iTrader: (4)

Mate gta5 language and content it's well graphic this time won't even at it myself till kids are in bed lol game is cool though just not for kids lol

hodgy0_2

You can just imagine the Philpot household was awash with this sort of stuff, all being played in Full view of the children

zip106

I'm not judging, but surely watching or playing these things at such a young age can't be good?

Most kids at 4 or 5 years old won't show violent tendencies, but a seed can easily be planted.

Kwik

iTrader: (10)

I have 2 Son's, one aged 7 and one 11. My 11yr old lives with his Mum, my 7 year old lives with us. If you wanted to tell the difference between a kid brought up on computer games and one using computers in moderation then you'd only need to look at my 2 lad's.

When he was 4 I had to have serious words with my Eldest's Mum over him playing GTA. It's obvious he's shoved up in his room, he makes youtube video's all the time on the games he's playing and I think he's now uploaded his 1000th video. His school reports are pretty bad, not as in bad behaviour but just no concentration. When he's here he's hard to motivate, just wants to sit there and as much as we force him outside on his bike etc he's only happy on a laptop/Xbox. I have a feeling his Mum's Ex/Current/Ex/Part time husband has it and let's him play GTA but it's kept from me, he seems to know a lot about it.

My 7 year old Son has just gone up into the next class in Kung Fu as he was a black belt with 5 stripes. He uses computers, he has an Xbox but we use it in moderation. If he's good he goes on one or the other before he goes to bed, if he plays up we cut the time he has on it or stop it for that night. He's in the top groups of his classes at school, in the "gifted and talented" group which has special outings and is the classes "expert" on ICT so other kids go to him for help.
Last week my mrs was pulled in by the new teacher and was told what a helpful lad he was and a delight to teach, so we bought him Colin Mcrae 1 + 2.

BoozyDave

iTrader: (8)

well, it's a game i've never played, but, i've spoke to a few mates and seen a few of the more explicit vids of gta5 online and i've changed my mind about letting my son getting it, i've spoken to him and he's getting fifa 14 instead

if my kids have been good, they go on the xbox for 1 hour, the xbox is not a babysitter or anything. while the weather has been good my kids have been playing on the park across the road from my house, football in our garden or on their bikes/football on the field at the back of our house. both of the downstairs xbox's are mainly used for watching 'netflix'

fpan

iTrader: (11)

+1.
That's why society/today's kids are the way they are...

SirFozzalot

I think it's hard to say what effect this type of game will have on kids as they grow up. Some, if not most, will just see it as a game and not take too much notice but the few out there that will be influenced by will be hard to spot until its potentially too late.

So a 12 year old kid is playing it and is still polite and friendly (in front of his parents) but do you really know what sort of effect this sort of thing will have on him by the time he's 19 and out getting pissed with his mates? Admittidley you could argue that he could turn out to be a violent thug at 19 anyway but do you really know if exposure to this sort of thing from a young age is making it worse. No real way of knowing either way I guess but it's not the sort of thing I would want my daughter being exposed to at such a young age.

An0n0m0us

+1

I'm not comfortable with my 16 year old playing it only because it's unnecessary extremism in a computer game that should be adult only no matter how grown up your kids are. I let him play it because I know that language at his age is common place at school and between mates even though he knows never to swear in front of me or his siblings. It's 18 for a very good reason.

However my younger children will never be allowed in the same room or anywhere close to earshot whilst that game is on. It is completely irresponsible to let young children play that game I don't care how anyone tries to justify it.

boxst

I had no problem letting my (young at the time) children play some of the shooting and fighting games. They think of it as fun, and it doesn't generally have any bearing on reality.

GTA V is interesting though. Wandering around hitting, running over and generally causing a nuisance is fine. The sex and especially the torture scene is way too graphic and realistic. I would not let my children play.