"Grand Theft Auto" Case

In 2005, a grandmother upset that she bought the a copy of “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” for her 14-year-old grandson without knowing the game contained un-lockable sexually explicit scenes brought charges against the makers of the game Take-Two and Rockstar games. The game itself had been rated M for Mature, which is means the game can only be purchased by those that are 17 and older. They then tried to turn the case into a class action suit affecting anyone who claims to be shocked and offended by the hidden content.

As someone with an interest in the video game industry, both as a gamer and a designer, I heard a lot about this case, and many quite similar to it. Video games have become the latest scapegoat in our society, replacing music and television from previous generations. In this particular case, I can understand that perhaps it did require an AO- or adult only rating, but at the same time, why did the woman buy a game with a rating printed on the front of the package that states the game is intended for gamers 17 or older for a 14-year-old child? The game already contains some pretty controversial subjects, such as car-jacking and shooting police, but I guess that grandmother wasn’t so worried about that sort of thing.

I’ve worked in retail where mature rated games were sold, and I always made sure to point out to a parent that the game was rated Mature when they were purchasing it, and I noticed that many parents really didn’t even bother to look at the ratings. There’s a misconception about video games that they’re just for kids, but as the industry has gotten older, so have the gamers. As the biggest chunk of the gamer demographic ages, the content they want changes, and the games follow. That’s why there is a rating system in place, very similar to the ones given to movies. I think if a parent decides to ignore the ratings on the game, purchase Mature rated game for someone too young, then they shouldn’t be able to complain about what content their child is being exposed to. The child can’t purchase the game on their own, thus the adult made the purchase and allowed their child to be exposed to what is in the game.