Hillary Clinton joins GTA row

By Steve Malone

Posted on 15 Jul 2005 at 12:02

Hillary Clinton, the wife of the ex-President and now a US Senator, has stepped into the row over whether or not there are explicit mini-games hidden in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

She has asked the Federal Trade Commission that regulates computer games in the States to re-examine the game's rating from M (Mature) to (AO) Adults Only, reports Reuters.

'The disturbing material in Grand Theft Auto and other games like it is stealing the innocence of our children and it's making the difficult job of being a parent even harder,' said Senator Clinton. 'I am announcing these measures today because I believe that the ability of our children to access pornographic and outrageously violent material on video games rated for adults is spiralling out of control.'

She says that she will also be introducing legislation to prevent 'inappropriate video games' falling into the hands of children.

The US, like the UK, has ratings that are supposed to prevent sales of games with explicit violent or sexual content being sold to minors. However, Senator Clinton now proposes to prohibit the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to underage customers. Retailers who fail to enforce the rules will face a $5000 fine.