GTA V
Grand Theft Auto: an open criminal world, an 18 rating and a casino of its own online.
The story mode is like a film: it pauses, and it ends. GTA Online is built like the other online games, endless and with daily tasks, and that's where frames might be needed. For those old enough, that is.
The limits by age, and the moves that make them stick: Screen time for kids and teens, a complete guide.
The most important things to know
GTA V is really two games: a story you play alone, and GTA Online, an open online world with other players, its own economy and its own casino. The 18 rating covers both and is among the best-earned ratings PEGI hands out: brutal violence (one sequence has you torturing someone), relentlessly coarse language, strip clubs and gambling.
Even so, GTA is among the games most Norwegian children report playing in the Norwegian Media Authority's survey. Many meet it first at an older sibling's or a friend's house, so the conversation is worth having even if the game never entered your home.
The casino in GTA Online runs on real gambling mechanics: poker, blackjack and a wheel of fortune, played with chips traceable back to real money through the game's purchase currency. That's why PEGI gave the game a gambling label of its own.
What's positive about GTA V for your child?
GTA V is one of the most expensively produced entertainment products ever made, and the story mode is proper craftsmanship, with satire aimed squarely at adults. For older teens with friends in GTA Online it's a social world too: cars, missions and plenty of nonsense together.
How can GTA V affect your child negatively?
The content is made for adults: the violence is close up, the language is relentlessly coarse and the world includes strip clubs and paying for sex. This isn't “a bit of swearing”, it's an adult game through and through.
The casino normalises gambling with real casino sounds and real casino mechanics, in a game plenty of kids play long before 18.
GTA Online has open voice and text chat with strangers, with the tone to match.
Settings you set together
- Here the most important setting is whether the game gets bought at all. The line is best drawn in the shop, not in the menus.
- If it gets played anyway (at yours or at a friend's): the GTA Online chat can be restricted in the game's settings, and the platform's parental controls handle purchases.
- Keep an eye on the casino: it's easy to wave off as “just play money”, and that's exactly how the habit takes hold.
Ask your child about the game
- Where did you first come across GTA, and what was going on in the game at the time?
- Story mode or Online, which one do your friends actually play, and what do they do in there?
- RP servers: what's the appeal of playing a taxi driver or a police officer in a game about crime?
- If you were making GTA VI, what would you put in, and what would you leave out?
Glossary
- Story mode
- The single-player part: three characters, a film-length plot and an ending. It pauses, it finishes, and it contains the scenes the 18 rating is for.
- GTA Online
- The shared open world with up to 30 other players, missions, businesses, cars and a casino. No ending, daily tasks, and this is where the spending and the strangers are.
- Shark Cards
- Real money turned into GTA dollars, from a few euros to about a hundred for the biggest card. Everything in Online costs GTA dollars, and the prices are set so the cards tempt.
- heist
- A multi-stage robbery mission for a team of friends, with a big payout at the end. The best part of Online, and an evening's work.
- griefer
- A player whose fun is ruining other people's, blowing up cars and chasing newcomers. Common in public lobbies, and the reason invite-only sessions exist.
- lobby and invite only
- A lobby is the session you play in with others. A public one holds up to 30 strangers; an invite-only session has friends alone, and the griefers stay outside.
- the casino
- The Diamond Casino in Online: poker, blackjack, slots and a wheel, played with chips bought for GTA dollars, which trace back to Shark Cards. It is why PEGI added the gambling label.
- RP servers
- Roleplay servers, mostly through FiveM on PC, where players act out ordinary lives in the city, police officer, taxi driver, shopkeeper, with rules of their own. Big among teenagers, and often streamed.
- modders
- Players who have altered the game on PC and can drop money, teleport or harass others in public lobbies. Modded money landing on an account can cause trouble for it.
Sources
The whole mindset behind the guide, with the research and the open-door principle: Kids and social media, a parent's guide
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