Grand Theft Auto Lawsuit

The first thing that jumped out at me when I was reading about this lawsuit was that the grandma who purchased this game, bought it for her 14 year old grandson. The game was initially rated M for mature which means it was meant for people aged 17 and up. Not 14 year olds. So she should have never bought the game for her grandson in the first place. After all of the criticism that the game got for these sexual scenes, the company changed the rating to Adult Only. So that means 18 and up right? Is there really that much of a difference between the two? Having said that, I don’t think that it was right of the game company to have these scenes hidden. It was deceptive to people buying the game that were under 18, and I’m sure that with the warning of excessive violence that was on the box there wasn’t a warning of sexual material. That is not ok. I know nothing about video games, so ‘hidden areas’ that need to be unlocked with ‘secret codes’ is pretty foreign, but I can’t imagine that it’s hard for a kid of any age to find the secret codes to unlock these hidden scenes on the internet somewhere.

Maybe the gaming company made a mistake by putting these scenes in their video game. But the purchaser also made a mistake by buying an age inappropriate game for her young grandson. I’m sure that this happens all the time, but when an adult willingly buys a game that is clearly rated for kids 17 and up and gives it to someone under 17, is that the gaming companies fault? I agree that the company made a mistake by releasing this version of the video game to the public without the correct label and warning, and going forward I would hope that it wouldn’t happen again. I don’t think that it justifies a lawsuit. This 14 year old shouldn’t be playing a game rated M in the first place.