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Despite its popularity, Grand Theft Auto is a video game that glamorizes sex, theft, prostitution and other crimes. And left high and dry on their video-game island, young gamers learn to accept such acts as the norm, just like coconuts falling from a palm tree.

Grand Theft Auto IV was the latest release at the end of April of this popular video game (see Victoria Advocate front page, April 30).

Game Crazy store director Ben Garcia of Victoria told Advocate reporter BJ Lewis, “The average age of gamers has gone up from 11- to 12-year olds to 18- to 19-year olds. The average age now is 10- to 30-something.”

If this shift in age is the trend across the country, that means those gamers who were 11 years old back in the mid ‘90s – when the first version of Grand Theft Auto came out – learned to love the “unrealistic” behavior. Now we have these same gamers older and more hooked than ever buying the latest version.

The internationally popular game is not just a concern by some in the United States, people across the world express worry, too. In fact, the game was censored in New Zealand, according to the New Zealand Herald, April 28. Gamers and store owners ordered the game from neighboring Australia.

A group called Family First issued a statement for the Herald: “Players could re-enact having sex with a prostitute, beating her bloody, taking her money and running her over with a car and shooting at police officers,” said a group spokesman, Bob McCoskrie. “It is completely naïve to believe that teenagers and young children won’t have access to and be able to play the game. It is also completely unrealistic to believe that young people will not be influenced in their attitudes and behaviors by constant exposure to this type of material.”

We concur that such exposure to Grand Theft Auto is counterproductive to a young person’s mindset.

Many agree that the game is great and full of excitement. But New Zealand Gameplanet store co-founder, Simon Barton, said, “There’s plenty of swearing, plenty of violence. It’s very good. But I wouldn’t want my 15-year-old playing it.”

So who comes to the rescue of youths who haven’t isolated themselves on such video-game islands? The answer is and will be parents, the ship that will guide them to the mainland.

We’ve said this many times before. Parents should take an active part in their children’s lives. Pay attention to what your children are doing on the computer, and make sure their friends have parents who care, as well.

Meantime, the video games will continue to sell. Parents, it’s really up to you.