I, as a mother of one child think this is fine for children over 12. My child got this game for his 12 birthday, and I was skeptical at first. I had heard this game was horrible, but once i saw my son play this, I found it wasn't as bad as I thought. It turned out that ESRB rated this M mostly because of cheats, which allow there to be more gore and blood, make random AIs literally only speak in profanities, make many characters smoke or do drugs, and make people walk around in bikinis, even though it completely destroys your save file. Another thing is that the "strong sexual behavior" can only be found one of two ways. One, is to use the game breaking cheats, or to complete the game, then find a random object, then bring it to one of 30 predetermined places. So in my opinion, this should be rated a high T, or a low M.

This game is good. And mabey it could be a good lesson CRIME DOESN'T PAY!! And secondly parents should stop yelling at its creators its just a game. third chances are the same damage could be happing to your kids at SCHOOL. I went through this But the damage is done. 4th Tell Johnny not to kill that person, NOT to smoke crack, NOT to have sex with a prostitute. Just stop blamming it on the creators.

The Grand Theft auto series does not MAKE people "go bad". This game does have gratuitous amounts of violence, sex, drugs, etc. but it is FICTIONAL. I let me 9 year old play this while I'm in the roo because he understands its not real. He knows that violence and crime in real life has [major] censequences. Since playing this game, he has had NO negative life changes whatsoever. A game is NOT real life, get over it people and take some darn responsibility for what you do and stop blaming things that have NO effect on the utmost VAST majority of people who experience it.

Unless someone has been completely in the dark about video games, they should already know that the GTA games are highly inappropriate for children. Violence, profanity and sexual situatuions are just about non-stop and the protagonist, while he might initially be relustant to get back into crime, goes all out once he does. The game is extremely fun to play for mature gamers that completely understand that just about everything in this game is not to be attempted in the real world.

All mature kids

ITS AN AWESOME GAME!

I am the father of two boys, one is 11, the older brother is 13. I have played this game before, and yes, I think it has to be, the very best games to come out of Rockstar Studios yet. Yes, it is true that this game contains explicit content, such as violence, and its abuse of drugs. The thing is about some parents, they shield their child from everything, and the matter of fact thing about it is, all of them (99.9999% of the age over 10) know about this stuff. There is no use shielding your children, but rather expose them to it and show them the wrongs in it. My youngest son started playing this when he was 10, and I told him and reminded him the rights and wrongs in the explicit content was featured. I am an educator, and saw this game as an chance to show my children what is right and wrong, and the thing is, all of the kids can already tell what is right from wrong, unless they have god-awful parents. Kids want to play this game because of its sheer awesomeness. It is an insanely fun game, with just inappropriate content. You have to stop shielding your children and give them more responsibility and trust, and they will ultimately respect you for it. This won't turn your children into mindless psychotic killers like the media says it will. It is intended purely for entertainment purposes. All boys above 10 are old enough to start learning the difference between fantasy and reality, and this is an perfect chance to do so. I recommend this for ages 10 and up, and most boys are mature enough to know not to do the things featured in the games. Just remember, these games are for sheer fun, and they don't ruin your kid's brains with trash.

The game takes away boredom and lets adults do things that in real life we would never dream of doing (like stealing, murder, and the character dying and coming back to life). As an adult I do play the game do turn off when the younger generation comes in. Not recommended for young people. It's a partial reason for violent kids in todays society.

I disagree with many of the comments about this game. I was 15 when GTA 3 came out. At the time, it was the most controversial game to date. I played GTA 3 all the time. When GTA Vice City came out when I was 16, I played that. I am 25 now. I have been playing violent video games since I was a young child. I have never commited a violent crime, killed a hooker, driven while intoxicated, ect. I was and still am a very good studnet. I am in grad school now. If you would listen to Jack Thompson then I should be in prison for commiting a violent crime due to my violent video game enjoyment. Why am I not in prison? Let me tell you why. I have intelligent parents who did not shelter me from the world we live in. They let me play video games, listen to "dirty" music, and they even openly discussed sex! "OH MY GOD! You must be a broken person! Your parents ruined you!" NOPE! My parents explained things to me. They would talk to me about the differences between reality and fantasy. I was not sheltered because sheltering your children is useless. One day, your child WILL leave home and will not be under the parents umbrella of protection and influence. What decisions will they make if the "Big Bad Scary World" was always closed off to them? Will they stick to their parent's strict ideals of censorship? Or will the dive right into the debauchery the world can offer? Now, I wouldn't let a 5, 6, or 7 year old play this game. Their minds are not yet developed enough to process the difference between fantasy or reality. It would be hard for a parent to explain this to a young child. But as for a 12 or 13 year old, it can be done. But, THE PARENT MUST BE INVOLVED! The parents need to explain what is wrong with the game; that the game is just fantasy! This game could be a good tool to use with teens. The role models in the game could be used to teach a teen. Yes, it really could! A role model is not always a person you look up to. A person/thing could be used as a role model of negative behavior. But, once again the parents need to be involved to teach this. I believe many parents do not want to take the time to teach life lessons. The parents will let the teachers, sports coachs, or whoever else to do the parenting for them. Many parents will let their young child get concussions at football practice and be rewarded for running into another human being; but they will not let their child play video games. Fake violence is worse than real life violence, aggresive behavior, and life long injuries? I think not. If your child wants to play this game and is above the age of 11 then let them. But, teach them that this game is fantasy. Teach them about the consequences of killing cops. Teach them that paying for a hooker will most likely get them a visit to the clinic with a nasty case of the Clap. Do not keep your child in the dark. Open the world up to them. Open the world up but with disclaimers and warnings. Don't be one of those parents that shelter your child. They will not turn into the next school gunman because of a stupid video game. The children need YOU to be there, to explain the complex world we live in.