School advises not buying GTA for the children this year
Una D’Arcy
A Mullingar School has taken the dramatic step of sending home a letter to all its parents telling them Grand Theft Auto V is not a suitable Christmas present for children.
Caroline Mhic Róibín, príomhoide at Gaelscoil an Mhuilinn, said: “We had started hearing in the playground from children that they were getting this game for Christmas. This game, where players can go into a strip club and get a lap dance, pick up prostitutes, where women are lured up alleys and beaten up. This game where part of the play is fondling near naked and naked women – this is a horrible, horrible thing.”
The teachers in the 252-pupil school then made enquiries in the classroom to discover that children as young as those in third class had played Grand Theft Auto, either at home or in other people’s homes, that they were aware of the nature of the content and older children were hoping to get it for Christmas.
“We sent home a letter to all parents, signed by myself and the 13 staff teachers, saying that this is not a suitable present and should not be bought.
“Parents have to say no to their children and protect them from unsuitable programmes on TV, graphic and violent video games,” Caroline told the Examiner.
“It has come to our attention that many children in our school are accessing unsuitable material, in particular, video games, TV programmes and DVD’s, all of which are having a negative impact upon them in school, be it in behaviour, attitudes to other people, language and levels of concentration,” the letter began.
“We, the teachers in the school are deeply concerned. We know that many of the children in our school are watching TV programmes such as CSI, Criminal Minds, South Park, Family Guy, Reality TV shows and the like. These are not suitable viewing for any primary school child,” it continued.
With Christmas just around the corner, the school principal took the bold step of expressing her concerns with the full support of her staff and since the letter went to homes, has been contacted by other school principals saying they had been considering taking the same action. To further reinforce their concern, they enclosed graphic stills from the computer game in case some parents were unaware what the content was in the fastest selling entertainment product in history, (it grossed $1 billion in its first three days).
“We have grave concerns about certain video games that children have access to, for example, Grand Theft Auto (which, we hear, is on several Santa wish lists this year.) This series of games (there are 5) has been at the forefront of the video game controversy. The general public have been shocked at the level of violence and explicit graphic content in them. There has been much written about the effect of these games on our youth from mental health issues to incidents of extreme acts of violence. We enclose a print-out of the review of Grand-Theft Auto 5 from the IMDb (Internet Movie Database), which we are sure will shock you,” the letter stated.
‘Gone are the days when children wanted the latest Barbie, Star Wars Lego or Mr Freeze the snowman who made slush puppies. I am sure the elves in Santa’s workshop are still working on wooden trains and baby dolls. Parents face the difficult task of saying ‘no’ to their children and knowing that in this world that innocence is a fragile thing and that kids now, more than ever, are facing a sophisticated world of information and technology at a much earlier age’ according to the reviewer.
“We understand that it is a rare occurrence for a school staff to send a letter of this nature out to its parents but we feel it is necessary. We can never be too vigilant when it comes to the safety of our children”, the letter stated.
“We can’t control what goes on in people’s homes,” said Caroline, “but we can be concerned and hope that our concern is shared by parents and they act on it.”