Grand Theft Auto: Remember kids, don`t kill those prostitutes, okay.

It's clear. Grand Theft Auto IV is only R18 until the buyer walks out the door.It can easily be sold for those under 18, but not with those under 18. The destinction being - according to Chief Censor Bill Hastings, is that if a parent walks in with their 15-year-old, don't sell it to them because it is obviously who is going to watch it. If the parent walks in alone, that's fine.

The two arguments, in my mind go like this: If this game should not be played by those under 18, and it sells out every day this week nationwide, and many of those playing this game are under 18, it should be banned. The other argument is why should a game be banned for adults purely because kids want to play it.

But this appears to be the argument of the Chief Censor: Of games are banned by the Chief Censor, all involved having to kill people - and the more gruesome the killing the more rewarded you are. In Grand Theft Auto you don't have to kill people. So while you can hire a prostitute, have sex, then run her over or shoot her, you don't have do that to advance in the game. You can stop at the sex. And the fact that you don't have to kill anyone (or hire prostitutes) is the stated reason why Grand Theft Auto IV is not banned, despite the Chief Censor stating in an interview he does not believe that kids who play the game will just "drive around and look at the architecture".

So kids, what the Chief Censor is effectively telling you is that you can play the game that your parents gave you, just don't kill anyone, particularly prostitutes- and if you are tempted to do that, don't hire the prostitutes, m'kay - even though we think you will anyway. At the end of the day the law is an ass. It has never been enforced since its enactment in 1994.