Should You Let Your Kid Play GTA 6? A Parent's Guide to GTA 6

Grand Theft Auto VI is weeks from release and the coverage around it is louder than ever. As is tradition with Grand Theft Auto, media outlets are now tying the series to real-world violence again.

If you are a parent trying to work out whether to buy this game for your kid, the noise doesn't help at all.

This guide covers everything a parent would need to know about GTA 6, including what the game is rated, what is in it and how to control access if you decide to go ahead.

Let's start with the rating. GTA 6 carries an adult rating in every major market, Mature 17+ from the ESRB in the US, PEGI 18 in Europe and R18+ in Australia. Those boards do not hand out the top rating for no reason. This is a game built by and for adults, full nudity and bloody violence included, and the ratings say so in every region that classifies it, with others even banning it outright.

Of course, the rating doesn't answer the entire question. We said much of this in our parents' guide for Grand Theft Auto V and it holds up for the sequel. A mature 16-year-old and a sensitive 11-year-old are not the same call, so weigh your own child's maturity against what the rating is warning you about. The best thing you can do is see the game for yourself before deciding.

Launch week will flood YouTube and Twitch with footage, so watch an hour of real gameplay rather than trusting a headline. If you do let them play, play alongside them when you can and talk about the difference between a cartoonishly violent sandbox and real life. Kids handle mature content far better when an adult is in the room and the conversation is open.

Conversely, you can watch the first trailer, second trailer, the extended look on Netflix and the launch trailer for a better idea of what's going to be in the game.

If you decide against it for now, or want guardrails in place either way, both major consoles can help. The PlayStation allows you to set up a child account under a family manager and use PlayStation's family and parental controls to block games above an age level, cap playtime, limit who can message your child and set spending limits. On Xbox Series X and S, the Xbox family settings and the companion app do the same job, with age limits, screen time, communication controls and approval required for purchases. Set these up once with your own account as the manager and GTA 6 either will not launch on that profile or will run inside the limits you set.

Single-player is only half of it. Rockstar Games is widely expected to launch an online mode for GTA 6 sometime in 2027. Online play means strangers, voice chat and a storefront. Nothing about that mode is confirmed yet, but the communication and spending controls above are exactly what you will want in place before it arrives. Turning off open voice chat with strangers is the single most useful switch for a younger player.

The other thing to watch is money. The last game made billions from Shark Cards, the real-money currency packs in its online mode. A child with a saved payment method can run up real charges fast, so the spending limits and purchase-approval settings are not optional extras here.

Make sure to set a spending cap of zero and/or require your approval on every purchase.

GTA 6 is an adult game with clear ratings and the tools to control access are already built into the console in your living room. Decide based on your own child and the rating rather than what mainstream media wants to tell you. Set the controls up either way.