After Grand Theft Auto is banned in one country, one reader admits he wouldn’t be upset if the same thing happened here, in order to protect his son.

Earlier this week there was a report on the country of Tajikistan. ban Grand Theft Autoas well as Counter-strike. This garnered a lot of condescending comments from many players, but I have to say it doesn’t seem that incomprehensible to me. I don’t know why they banned it, maybe their reasons weren’t good, but as a father of a seven year old son I can totally understand why people are concerned about this video games their children play.

A reader commented last week about how the average age of players on Call of Duty it was in adolescence. That was certainly my experience and if they did now I’ve moved on has Fortnite and other free games, I imagine it’s a very different and more enjoyable experience. Certainly, most GTA Online users seem to be much younger than they should be, judging by the age range.

When you’re a kid, the one thing you want to do more than anything is be treated like an adult and do all the forbidden things adults do. Sex and violence in movies and video games is usually a child’s first introduction to many concepts they are too young for and I’m not going to say it’s completely unhealthy, but there is a limit somewhere and in my opinion, Grand Theft Auto crosses it.

My boy isn’t allowed to play GTA 5, but I know for a fact he has it at friends’ houses and probably behind my back at home too. What worries me is that while adults may see this as a parody of the worst of Americana, to a child all this parody and satire goes completely over their head and takes everything at face value. of the letter.

The language is as strong as it can be, the treatment of women is horrible (makes sense since the men are all terrible people but still), and the violence is relentless and treated like fun and amusing. Criminal activities, including theft and drug dealing, are treated as normal and without any moral consequences, although there is historical context when playing GTA Online.

I don’t think I’m a pearl-clutching prude by saying I don’t want my seven-year-old playing this kind of game.

But like I said, he did it. Despite all my attempts to stop it. It’s not even that I want a ban, and I certainly wouldn’t campaign for one, but if it happened I would be perfectly happy to do so. I would instantly sacrifice my ability to play the game if it meant the kids couldn’t. I don’t think that’s unreasonable and I’m sure many parents would agree.

In today’s world, there is virtually no way to prevent children from accessing every type of sex and violence imaginable, and I don’t even want to think about what kind of porn there is. was able to already watch.

Of course, I’m sure many people will say “It never hurt me”, but when the parents reading this were kids, we didn’t have a game as sophisticated and complex as GTA 5. Internet no more. It either didn’t exist or was in its infancy and extreme content was nowhere near as easy to obtain.

I have been watching the news over the last few months and it seems very clear to me that we are not becoming more peaceful or more understanding as a society, but rather the opposite. Are video games part of the problem? I don’t know, but I know they don’t help. Especially not GTA 5.

By reader Bors

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