"GTA encourages people to go to the beach and buy a new hat." Evidence of the disparity between the way we look at films and games, and the lingering perception that games are more suitable for children, is plain in the language used in the petition that supposedly brought the issue to Target's attention: "This sickening game encourages players to commit sexual violence and kill women", and "games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women". While the idea that a piece of entertainment will influence its consumer to act out in line with the themes of the story is nothing new (after all it happened with theatre, books, film and television), it has been a particular sticking point for video games. In this case, rather than addressing the incredibly important issues of violence against women (in the actual lived world) or the exposure of children to complex media they can't hope to process, the debate has slammed back to the same old rhetoric: that Art and media, which includes games as well as movies and books, have always been used to explore, discuss and play with taboo themes in a safe environment. In most cases it's accepted that adults can engage with this kind of media if they want to.

This should, of course, not be entirely without bounds, which brings me to another aspect of the petition, the idea that Grand Theft Auto rewards players for simulating sexual violence. In fact the Australian Classification Board guidelines are quite clear — sexual violence tied to any kind of incentive or not justified by context disqualifies a game from classification. Such a game would not be released for sale in Australia at all. There are many people with a completely unacceptable attitude to sexual violence, but this game didn't give it to them. And speaking of the Classification Board, bans of course have a particular significance in Australia given our country's history with adult-focused video games. Before January 2013, games (such as GTA) that were clearly meant for adults were classified MA15+ and sold to children, simply because certain people within the government refused to accept there were games that should be restricted to people over 18. Though the introduction of an R category was a positive move, we clearly still have a way to go. Specifically, while some findings of the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association's yearly Digital Australia survey may surprise some people (47 per cent of gamers are female; the average age of video game players is 36), there is one finding that is sadly not surprising at all: fewer than half of the people surveyed said a game's classification influences whether or not they'd buy it for a child. There is an important discussion that needs to take place about video games with violent and sexual themes in Australia, but it isn't about whether or not retailers should be selling them. We can take responsibility for the media our children consume without removing the media altogether.