Rockstar Games recently released the trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. The game has once again become a hot topic online, and the project has also attracted attention in Russia.
Mikhail Ivanov, chairman of the public movement "Russia Orthodox," is now urging Russians not to play GTA VI. In his opinion, this game promotes depravity and banditry.
Ivanov reminded that in GTA, killing police officers, trading illegal goods, and stealing cars are considered normal, and the main values are power and money. He views them not just as "games," but as a system of views that developers impose on the player:
GTA has always been a game where the main character is a criminal, a bandit, a murderer [...] Where a woman is an object for satisfying lust, and money and power are the main values. This is not just a game. It is a system of views that is imposed on the player. And if we talk about protecting traditional values, we must be consistent: what destroys the soul cannot be useful.
Ivanov explained that teenagers who play GTA absorb a behavioral model where violence and depravity are the norm:
They get used to the idea that you can break the law, that you can humiliate others, that you can live by the rules of the "strong." And then we wonder why tragedies happen in schools, why aggression is growing, why teenagers commit crimes. A game is not just entertainment. It is a school, only without a teacher and without God. And what it teaches directly contradicts the Gospel.
According to the public figure, parents should explain to their children that playing GTA VI is "wrong." Ivanov emphasizes that GTA not only constantly violates commandments such as "do not kill," "do not commit adultery," "do not steal," but makes this "the main plot":
And if a person spends 10 thousand rubles on this, he is investing money in something that destroys his soul. This is not just spending. This is an investment in one's own spiritual decay. Parents, if your child asks you to buy GTA VI, do not rush to agree. Talk to him. Explain that not everything that is "fashionable" is useful. Not everything that is "interesting" is safe.
Ivanov admits that there are games that develop, teach to think, help to learn, but there are also projects like GTA:
And there are those [games] that only corrupt. And GTA is exactly one of them. We should not ban everything indiscriminately, but we must protect our children from what can harm them. And if we do not do this, no price will justify the consequences.