Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto: Would you let your 6 year old play?

RichL74

No

All of this I allow my 5 / 6 / 7 year old to play GTA and CoD because they know its not real, in the same aspect then, no doubt you let a 6 year old watch an 18 rated film too?

Stick em down in front of the telly with a bag of haribos and put one of the Saw movies on or say Human Centipede, hell maybe even the exorcist and see how well they sleep after that.

Of course its not real, but how do you know that it isnt have some kind of psychological effect on them?

Show em the clip in the Exorcist with the crucifix - not real is it, they'll be able to tell the dfference, wont give them nightmares.

Show them the first, unedited, Robocop where they kill Murphy or where ED209 blasts the bloke to pieces (both had to be cut for the UK release) they'll be fine, little lambs.

As someone posted above, it's 18 for a reason, before you say its two seperate things its not. 18 rated game, 18 rated movie.

helwarren

No

My 11 yr old is constantly badgering me to buy him GTA5, apparently all his friends have it (that old chestnut). I have no interest in video games and certainly don't want to sit and watch him play, so I rely on the rating system. I would not let him watch an 18 film, so I will not let him play an 18 game. He has watched cert 15 films but only after we have watched it first but I do allow 15 games.
I do wonder about some parents. My sons friend (12) announced his dad dared him to watch saw!

kingbuxton

Yes

SirGazereth wrote: »

IN GTAV there is a scene where one of the main characters is shagging a woman from behind. The woman's boyfriend finds out and confronts the main character saying he loves the her and what-not.
Then the main character proceeds to stamp on the boyfriends head whilst shouting "Cnt!!!!! Cnt!!!!! Cnt!!!!!". Afterwards he peels off a piece of scalp that had been stuck to his shoe.

Is it okay for a 6 year old to see that? Really?



Edit: Spoiler alert

Thing is with that, you only get to that point if you do the story. I allow my kids to play GTA, but only because they havent a clue about the story. As somebody else said, they like to fly a plane, crash a car etc.

szam_

Yes

I was playing Splatter House 2 at the age of 4 or 5 - didn't half scare me to death and I still find it creepy but I turned out alright though.

If I had a six year old however, would much prefer they were active and involved in things like young sports, i.e. football, playing instruments or whatever they felt they wanted to try... basically the chances and opportunities of trying things and perhaps excelling at it that I never had.

mumbles87

No

Ive been playing grand theft auto since my teens... but that was when it was just an overhead view and you never saw much.. about aged 15 GTA 3 came out so thats when I really started playing them.. wouldnt have a problem with my kids doing the same at a similar age providing they understand its not real

but a 6 year old? no way. the swearing alone and the use of the N word would be bad enough before you get onto shooting people!

d70cw6

wow. plenty of POS parents who let their kids interact with inappropriate media in this thread!

lulu_92

Yes

I think it depends on your child and how you feel they would react.

My dad got a Playstation when I was 5 or 6 and two of the first games we had were Dino Crisis and GTA2.

Dino Crisis scared me (one scene where the T-Rex smashes the window) but it never gave me nightmares, plus I knew that Dinosaurs were extinct so the events from the game wouldn't happen in real life. (in fact, SAW 3 scared a 16 year old me a hell of a lot more than Dino Crisis ever did)

I loved playing GTA2, of course this one was no where near as "realistic" (using the term for graphics and gameplay) than the ones out today. Saying that, my sister got GTA3 for Christmas when I was 9 and it was my favourite game. Again I always knew that I could not go around shooting people and beating up prostitutes after sleeping with them in my car. It really depends on how you think your child would react to the game.

I think I would probably wait until they're a bit older for GTA now, because of the language, the sexualisation, and also in GTA 5 when Trevor is torturing that guy.

Marvel1

No

RichL74 wrote: »

All of this I allow my 5 / 6 / 7 year old to play GTA and CoD because they know its not real, in the same aspect then, no doubt you let a 6 year old watch an 18 rated film too?

Stick em down in front of the telly with a bag of haribos and put one of the Saw movies on or say Human Centipede, hell maybe even the exorcist and see how well they sleep after that.

Of course its not real, but how do you know that it isnt have some kind of psychological effect on them?

Show em the clip in the Exorcist with the crucifix - not real is it, they'll be able to tell the dfference, wont give them nightmares.

Show them the first, unedited, Robocop where they kill Murphy or where ED209 blasts the bloke to pieces (both had to be cut for the UK release) they'll be fine, little lambs.

As someone posted above, it's 18 for a reason, before you say its two seperate things its not. 18 rated game, 18 rated movie.

I wouldn't be surprised if these parents instead of kids TV shows they put on adult hardcore films on.

For Xmas, my nephew who is now 7 is having Fifa 14 and Disney Infinity Marvel for his PS3, there are games out there for kids, they even Game has a Junior sectio, in case you didn't know:
http://www.game.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/HubArticleView?hubId=280825&articleId=280826&catalogId=10201&langId=44&storeId=10151&merchname=topnav-_-gamejunior-_-gamejunior