The author of the original petition, Nicole, has probably never heard of this game before, really, as they've only started this petition now, for a game that is already a year old and this particular game mechanic has been around since Grand Theft Auto III (2001)

It's a game that allows players to murder EVERYONE for entertainment, indiscriminate of gender or class. One of hundreds of aspects in the game is that you can commit violence against women (men, trans-people, immigrant farmers, hipsters, rednecks, bankers, the homeless, beach-goers), the part where Nicole says that you can abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'health' points, again, this is ONE aspect of the game and has never been a part of 'progress' throughout the series. It's a mini-game and there's no achievements for it. There are however goals to pick up hitchhikers and take them to a colony of Altruists, who are naked men and women that canabalise their victims that you deliver.

Anyway, you would only ever know that you can solicit sex in the game by driving along side the ladies and accepting their propositions (or find out through other people that have). As for getting health... I think they only ever drop cash and sometimes a snack bar. Everyone drops those, regardless – and now Target are stocking it and promoting it for your Xmas stocking (if you're over 18, fine, otherwise it's actually an offence to sell to minors, or parents clearly buying for minors). If Target would really sell 18+ games to minors, then they should take them off the shelves and probably close their entire stores.
- UPDATE: Target have pulled the games from their shelves -
- UPDATE 2: Kmart have pulled the games from their shelves -
- UPDATE 3: Original Petition seeks to now take aim at Big W and Woolworths (because they don't know any more about games than we do about the sex industry and don't realise that Woolworths don't sell video games) How out of touch is this petition? -
- UPDATE 4: Other supporters are encouraging that this game be removed from the likes of JB HiFi. This is what Target have started -

Nicole says that this game means that after various sex acts, players are given options to kill women by punching her unconscious, killing with a machete, bat or guns to get their money returned. There's no explicit direction to do any of these things, no pop ups tell you what to do, just the voices in the player's head. There's no machete in GTA V, either. Maybe she's thinking of another GTA, but I'm sure she's never paid attention to this issue until her child came back from playing the game at a friend's house on his PS4 or XBOXONE, since this corellates with the timing of this petition, or she finally saw something on the internet that offended her. For the former, her child's friend's parents should also be stripped of their child an incarcerated for buying their kid 18+ games. You wouldn't buy them the SAW boxset. How is this any different?

Please Target – we appeal to you, to ignore the petition to withdraw Grand Theft Auto V from sale, because women should be beaten and murdered, equally, or have women removed from video games entirely, so that they may never suffer virtual violence or abuse ever again and leave it up to men to be abused and murdered.

One of many fan clips on YouTube shows the woman being run down, run over, set alight and, still screaming, repeatedly shot. This misogynistic GTA 5 PLAYER literally makes a game of bashing, killing and horrific violence against women. What a horrible person. Although, the unlike the description, the woman dies before she is set alight and the screaming is coming from other people running away in the streets. The game itself also never links sexual arousal and violence, because You can kill prostitutes BEFORE an exchange is made as well as afterward (but never during, which IS sexual violence), the same way that you can also buy goods and services at a Convenience Store in the game and kill the clerk before or after the sale and then take cash from the register. This is violence against MEN, as well as racism, because all of the clerks happen to be of colour, because of corporate hiring ethics. I SAVE A PROSTITUTE IN GTA V ONLINE FROM A MOTORCYCLE GANG BROTHEL. WHERE'S MY HEADLINE?

Women AND men have firsthand experience of this kind of violence. It haunts them, and they've been trying to rebuild their lives ever since. Just knowing that women and men are being portrayed as deserving to be used by men and women (GTA Online) and potentially murdered for sport and pleasure – to see this violence that ALL PEOPLE lived through turned into a form of entertainments is as old as Punck and Judy Shows and causes people great pain and harm.

This game spreads the idea that ALL genders, class and cultures exist as scapegoats for ALL violence. It shows hatred and contempt for people in any industry and culture and puts them at greater risk.

Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women. Assuming that an R18+ game is being sold directly to minors, and only to men and NEVER to women, which is what's fuelling the epidemic of stereotypes experienced by so many GIRLS and WOMEN in Australia - and GLOBALLY.

Target, you pride yourself on being a family company. Please make sure to sell this game to people over 18. They are part of the family, too.

We urge you NOT to follow the example set by the New Zealand’s largest retailer, NZ Warehouse Group, in upholding censorship and unethical corporate leadership, by removing these games.

This would also set an example to other stockists of GTA V.

Please put TRUE ethics of integrity before pandering to censorship for profit and make a strong statement that you do not condone JUST sexual violence, sexual exploitation or the abuse of women as ‘entertainment’, but ALL violence.

TL; DR - To say that this is grooming a new generation of BOYS says two things WRONG: 1. That this game is bought EXCLUSIVELY by males, which is heterosexist. 2. That this game IS MEANT FOR the sale to MINORS, which it isn't.

Fun FACTS - 'The "R18+" rating is restricted to those 18 and over, meaning those under 18 cannot legally view/play the game. Themes, violence and coarse language are virtually unrestricted however sexual violence is not allowed to be depicted but implied only if justified by context and drugs related to incentive or rewards must be kept at a bare minimum.'

'As of 2006, parody and satire are now legally protected in Australia after the government introduced amendments to the country's copyright laws, [59] thus eliminating the possibility of censorship occurring in such a circumstance, as has previously taken place. More information regarding these amendments can be found on the attorney generals department website.'