Assistant Principal's 

Report

Do you really know what your child is playing on their Playstation? Grand Theft Auto (GTA) - a game NOT for any student!!!

Primary School students often point out that violent video games are often more challenging, faster paced, and more competitive than non-violent video games, and this is why they like to play them. Kids are continually shocked when we tell them that the majority of gamers are over the age of 36yrs. We are continuing to see an extraordinary amount of Primary School age children using Grand Theft Auto, the violent bestselling video game with an R+ rating.

There are also some Primary School age children using Grand Theft Auto V which is an M-rated version also brimming with gang violence, nudity, extremely coarse language, and drug and alcohol abuse. None of the main characters in the game makes for a decent role model.

Also known as ‘‘GTA’’ it glorifies crime and violence. GTA lets a child watch such things as prostitutes performing sex acts; this prostitute can then be gruesomely murdered to take back any money they spent on engaging her services.

The sound effects should be enough to make any parent cringe. Some reviews say that all the sexual content is avoidable. That is NOT TRUE. Some of the material is avoidable, like the strip clubs which offers topless dancers or the fact that you can pick up prostitutes on the street and have intercourse with them in your car (it does show the scene with an option to skip). However, the game story does have sex scenes that bare all.

We see this more and more often being used by kids under the age of 12yrs. Many parents trust their child to stay away from the optional sexual content the game provides. However, we’ve all been kids and did you ever do something that your parents told you not to do?

Please be cautious.

The violence towards women, in this game, is unacceptable and unavoidable. Search Grand Theft Auto on YouTube you can see for yourself. It won’t be hard to find. We are not linking YouTube videos here for obvious reasons. When kids spend hour upon hour using a game console to kill people, hire prostitutes, be violent towards women it starts to impact on what is ok and not ok in real life. There have been numerous studies that prove first-person violent video games do affect us, even if we don’t realise it at the time.

Comments from fans of violent video games typically argue, ‘‘I’ve played hundreds of hours of violent video games and haven’t hurt anyone!’’ However, this does not mean playing violent video games does not affect. Anyone who has ever felt excited, tense, or frustrated while playing a video game has been ‘‘affected’’ by them. Reading the different review articles and individual studies about violent video games can seem a bit like watching a game of tennis between sets of findings and counter-findings.

Here are our recommendations for parents and carers of gamers:

1. Respect age restrictions -- R Rating is 18+ for a reason. Read more on classifications here

http://www.classification.gov.au

2. We highly recommend that you take 30mins out of your busy day and sit with your child and play any game they want to use and decide whether or not it is appropriate.

3. There are many age-specific games available, starting from as young as 9yrs when in restricted mode and with parental supervision.

4. Set healthy boundaries on time spent gaming.

5. Find out at a minimum how to help your child block and report.

6. Remind your child not to give out any personal information online and never to meet up with anyone they meet online.....offline.