For the week of 3.16.06 

"A lot of game makers are capitalizing on what the current MTV generation can't seem to get enough of: hip-hop and urban culture." – Dan Hua, editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly (Washington Post, September 27, 2005)

In July of 2005, the Entertainment Software Rating Board changed the rating on the violent videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to a restrictive "Adults Only 18+" after it was found the company did not disclose an explicit sex scene known as "Hot Coffee." The scene was included in the game, but could only be unlocked with a computer download. The rating change from "Mature 17+" forced Take-Two to pull the game from store shelves, crimping sales, disrupting the company's operations and sending stock shares in Take-Two  Interactive and Rockstar Games, the manufacturer and distributor, plunging. But the game was re-rated only after more than 12 million units had been sold, generating about $600 million in retail sales.

The GTA franchise, worth about $1 billion in U.S. sales alone, has cashed-in on the sex-drugs-and-violence fantasy perpetuated by popular music, videos, and films.  To millions of young and not-so-young men, it's an entertainment experience which builds on and is reinforced by the culture of "gangsta" rap, glorifying crime, drug use, murder and brutality. This culture is present in the rap and hip-hop music to which children listen, and is now being glorified in films as well; the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently awarded the Oscar for Best Song to "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," which glamorizes prostitution and makes violent, sadistic exploiters of women into heroic figures. This is the same world which Grand Theft Auto allows players to inhabit. Today, many young men think they understand ghetto life because they listen to hip-hop albums, watch music videos, go to movies and now -- most intensely -- play video games. (Washington Post, September 27, 2005)

"Playing San Andreas is not like listening to a rap album by the Game or watching the move Boyz N the Hood. When you play San Andreas, you are in control of the symbols all around you, all of those symbols we think of when we think of the ghetto – the guns, the violence, the drugs, the gangs, the women. You're not only listening to what's going on, you're not just watching what's going on, you're in control of what's going on. That is a big, big difference." – Kurt Squire, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is researching the effect of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on teenage boys (Washington Post, September 27, 2005)

That this "control" can have malign effects has been demonstrated by countless scientific studies.

"Research shows that children become anxious, desensitized and aggressive when they use violent media." --  Dr. Michael Rich, Director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School. (US Fed News, July 27, 2005)

In January, the Los Angeles city attorney's office sued Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, for hiding pornographic material inside GTA, for making misleading statements in marketing and for engaging in unfair competition. Delgadillo is seeking civil penalties and is requesting that Take-Two and Rockstar take action to ensure full disclosure to consumers about the content of their video games. (AP, January 27, 2006)

"Businesses have an obligation to truthfully disclose the content of their products - whether in the food we eat or the entertainment we consume." – Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo (AP, January 27, 2006)

Even prostitutes are opposing the game. The Sex Workers Outreach Project USA, or SWOP, "an organization dedicated to improving the lives of sex industry workers and to the promotion of a safe working environment for the industry," in February announced a boycott of Rockstar's game.

In the games, players can solicit "services" from prostitutes by driving their cars slowly near them. No sexual acts are in clear visible view, but during the "transaction," the player regains health and loses money. Although the player cannot actively rape prostitutes in the game, a possible rape is alluded to once during the story line of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.  The prostitutes, like every other character, are also subject to homicide at the hands of the protagonist.

SWOP, despite being "adamantly opposed to any and all forms of censorship," cited a 2001 document from the National Institute on Media and the Family's David Walsh and called for "all parents and all gamers to boycott Grand Theft Auto," and said the organization wishes "to inform other parents of the potential danger extremely violent video games pose to children." (CNETNews.com,February 17, 2006)

"This game encourages denigration and destruction…it accrues points to players for the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes. SWOP-USA calls on all parents and all gamers to boycott Grand Theft Auto." – Sex Workers Outreach Project website (New York Times, February 20, 2006)

With increasing numbers of violent incidents and ever more vocal opposition from all walks of society, it is clear that society is becoming aware of the dangers which violent videogames pose to players, particularly children. One hopes that the makers of such games will rethink their actions, stop glorifying violence and begin making an honest effort to police themselves and provide more wholesome entertainment – before the American people call on government to take sterner steps.

Culture Watch - Entertainment Industry News

The Parents Television Council - www.parentstv.org