Russia May Ban GTA 6 Over Claims Of Immoral Content And Child Influence
"The creators of GTA VI are deliberately including destructive and vulgar content in their product, which is completely unacceptable to the moral health of society. This includes the planned inclusion of scenes of male striptease in the game, which is a direct and cynical violation of basic moral norms and traditional spiritual values. Allowing such content is tantamount to corrupting the younger generation. We need to either impose strict legal restrictions on the distribution of such games in Russia or require publishers to release special versions for our market, cleared of immoral content."
Mikhail continues, "GTA's popularity makes it a particularly dangerous tool of influence. We must demonstrate civic responsibility and prevent our children from being sold the poison of corruption and permissiveness under the guise of entertainment. We cannot waste money on products that undermine our values. It's telling that even in other countries, developers are forced to consider age verification systems due to increasingly stringent legislation. It's our duty to be more principled in this matter."
Russia's objection to male strippers is likely tied to either the country's well-documented anti-gay politics or its severe crackdown on pornography production and consumption. The leaked content also featured the female playable character of Grand Theft Auto 6 ogling the male stripper, but considering the primary audience of Grand Theft Auto is young males despite its billing as a mature game series. Grand Theft Auto 6 would not be the first M-rated game to be censored or banned in Russia, and it won't be the last. This behavior also isn't exclusive to Russia, of course—China is another large market known to ban or censor games, film, and other media containing sexual content, highly violent content, or depiction of LGBT characters.
It's easy to see Grand Theft Auto potentially facing a Russian ban due to leaked sexual content, especially if you recall the Hot Coffee incident that nearly got Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas banned from sale at brick and mortar US retailers. For those of you who weren't around or watching the news at the time, the Hot Coffee incident was spurred by modders re-enabling outright scrapped content—a minigame depicting heterosexual intercourse between two clothed adults. While this seems fairly quaint by modern standards of sexual content depicted in video games, the Hot Coffee mod nearly saw San Andreas permanently marked with a an "Adults Only" rating that would have seen the game barred from sale at most retailers. These days, only the most severely NSFW titles (usually depicting or endorsing sexual abuse) are slapped with that rating, and the digital-first nature of modern game distribution has led to the AO rating lacking the impact it once had.
Even so, the interview statements do pose yet another problem for the development team at Rockstar North, especially if they want Russian customers to buy the game instead of resorting to the software piracy popular within the region. Obviously, the United States' protections on free speech do not apply globally, so the most business-conscious move for Rockstar to make at this point will likely be censoring Grand Theft Auto 6, at least for the version(s) released in Russia and potentially other markets.
