My XBL Gamertag is BigZman95

I'm not saying that a mother should go hand her five year old a copy of GTA IV and say, "Here you go honey. Have fun!" But I don't see why they don't let some kids play the game, yet we let them play WORSE. I am fourteen and I feel like I am mature enough to handle it. I know better than to run around shooting people and stealing their cars to go pick up a prostitute. Do I think that our kids should be exposed to it? No, but have you watched TV in the past year or two? TV is becoming progressively more violent and mature as we speak. And they can still fit in a tv show that your kids could easily find after eating dinner. And what games are in your child's library? If you answered: Fallout 3, Fable,Fable 2, Saint's Row, Saint's Row 2, Prototype,or many other mature rated games, then your kid has probably seen/experienced worse than what they would come across in GTA. I'm not condoning the content in GTA, but I feel like the game catches so much hell (and it rightfully should catch a lot of it) but I feel like they're profiling here. They ridicule GTA until the cows come home, but other games that are considerably worse don't even receive so much as a slap on the wrist. My mom is very strict on games, and she let me have Saint's Row 2 before I purchased GTA IV. Honestly, Saint's Row 2 is so much worse than GTA IV could even think about being. But Saint's Row 2 didn't even raise an eyebrow. Why? Because "Grand Theft Auto" wasn't stamped on the cover. The media has caught Rockstar and GTA between a rock and a hard place. People automatically associate the title with what they see on the news. But while they shake their heads at the poster of GTA, they're handing games like Fallout 3 and Saint's Row 2 across the counter to the nice cashier. I'm not asking for you to go buy your kid GTA. I'm not trying to make it look like it's not bad. I'm not agreeing with the content. I'm just asking you to please sit down and consider what you are buying for your kids. It's your parental decision to make if you let your kid play it or not, but maybe you should look at more than just the title if you haven't already. What may seem like a safe game for your kid to play may actually be the worst thing that could fall into their hands. Games like Halo seem harmless and pretty much are. They may teach your kid some choice words, but nothing much else. But the other games can be a real problem. Many games don't have a lot of sexual content, but the violence is pretty rough. Saint's Row has some pretty mature and violent content. Before buying your kid a game, please ask the guys and girls behind the counter, "What's in this? How bad is it?" Games like Prototype are very violent, Prototype may be the MOST violent game I've ever played, but I don't see them as much as a problem as they are science-fiction games. As a parent, you should be able to tell how mature your child is. I think that if you feel like they are mature and you have taught them not to do what they see on TV or in games, then they should be alright to play it. That's how I was raised and I've turned out ok. I get good grades at school, all the kids in my school like me and so do the teachers, and I hardly ever get in trouble. The mature games have a big draw, and often are the highest rated games, but sometimes you just have to find suitable T-rated games.

Some reccomendations of T-rated games:

Instead of Prototype, InFamous

Instead of GTA/Saint's Row, Mercenaries

Instead of Fallout 3, Oblivion (This game was rated T then was switched to M, but it's not M by much and should still probably be rated T)

Sincerely,

A kid trying to help out.