Target has pulled all copies of Grand Theft Auto V from its stores in Australia, after a petition against the game drew 41,000 signatures, and Kmart has just decided to join them.

GTAV is a vastly popular – and vastly violent – game. After its release in September 2013 it broke six world sales records, selling 33m copies in the 2014 financial year, and spawned various controversies due to its depiction of women and a now infamous torture scene. Recently, developers Rockstar released a new first-person mode on newer consoles, encouraging experienced players to go back to the game and new players to pick it up for the first time – and it’s this resurgence that seems to have prompted the reaction, along with Target’s decision to run an ad placing GTA, an R-18 rated game, in the Toys section.

The petition against Target selling GTAV was started by a group of former sex workers and victims of domestic violence angry at the way the game portrays women. They argued that GTAV “literally makes a game of bashing, killing and horrific violence against women”. It’s hard to argue against that – the game lets players kill sex workers (and anyone else in the game) – though it’s possibly the least interactively misogynist instalment in the series thus far, eschewing questionable relationship mechanics and the ability for sex with prostitutes to heal you.

The petition’s argument was that a store which crosses all demographics shouldn’t stock such a product. Target have agreed, and Kmart have followed suit. People who want to play GTAV will have to shop elsewhere. It’s easy to ask: so what?

In the grand scheme of things this changes very little. Those who want the game will buy it from another store, while those who feel very strongly about its placement in this particular chain can carry on more cheerfully. No one’s rights are being restricted, and the world’s a slightly happier place.

But it sets a concerning precedent. GTA games have been the target of of various systematic campaigns to shut down violent video games, including notorious pro-censorship lawyer Jack Thompson’s attempts to link them directly to violent crime in the US.

This group of former sex workers do not have the institutional power to even come close to the damage those campaigns could have done to the medium – but their approach and their arguments echo those campaigns’ claim that interactive media is more dangerous, more corrupting, more likely to lead to real-world consequences than non-interactive media. There is still not enough evidence to suggest that’s the case in general, never mind that it specifically applies here; Target’s acquiescence validates what is still an assertion.

It’s hypocritical to stop selling GTAV while still selling NERF guns, unless video games are more likely to result in real-world behavioural changes than real-world games. The same logic applies to violent films and literature.

Target’s decision also reinforces the concept that games are for kids and that adult depictions of violence and adult themes aren’t appropriate in a medium that is rapidly growing to encompass all ages. If young boys are playing GTAV and deciding that killing sex workers is hilarious, that’s not the fault of the developers or of the stores that sell it; the game’s already rated R-18 in Australia. A long list of games are banned or censored for the Australian market, as a result of more stringent classifications.

GTAV is part of a franchise devoted to pushing the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable in adult entertainment. Yes, it depicts women terribly; there’s little argument about that. It also depicts men terribly, though at least there are a few complex and well-realised male characters in the game. At no point does it force you to interact with sex workers, positively or otherwise, though the fact that you can is obviously a cause of great concern for these women which deserves to be seriously heard.

All these arguments and more have been made, interestingly, by people who have signed the petition in favour of Target banning the game. There are a remarkable number of comments by petitioners fervently against the idea of Target taking GTAV off the shelves, along with a significant amount of abuse directed at the women who began the campaign. That seems to be a result of the petition being passed around on 4chan’s video game board /v/ a couple of days ago, leading to a number of irrelevant signatures from people arguing against the petition (or taking the opportunity to post startlingly racist comments).

Perhaps the true moral of this sorry story is that, in arguing fervently against something it’s easy to ignore how your actions might contribute to the culture that you dislike. 4chan didn’t cause this, of course, but its reaction to the moral panic at the heart of this issue only justifies that panic and lends it a veneer of legitimacy – and the appearance of support, if you only look at the headline numbers. Likewise, groups that seek to remove games from stores give them publicity for free, and GTA’s developers are not alone in occasionally courting controversy in order to profit from an outraged response.

Yet for all the grotesque and demeaning messages that GTAV contains, it remains an important cultural artefact, hugely popular and influential. As games mature, more are going to try to explore the issues GTAV attempts to satirise, sensationalise and make ridiculous. This War of Mine, for instance, tackles sexual violence during war as part of its examination of survival in war zones; games that explore violence, like Spec Ops: The Line, are only possible now because we have begun to accept that games can be for grown-ups and can explore difficult, adult topics intelligently. GTAV might be distasteful, but it’s necessary.