Johnny X is a typical gangster. An entourage of “hos” follow him to his stolen car, and they speed down the street to a back alley where they run over a hooker, crash into a police car and shoot a gun into a crowd of innocent bystanders. He also makes his living by participating in gang violence and furthering racial stereotypes. (He’s black, of course.)

There is a video game about Johnny X, and it’s obviously meant for public consumption. These are just the average daily activities of a typical “gangsta.”

But wait! If you spin around three times, throw your X-Box against the wall and download a special “hacked” version of the game, you can view, and possibly participate in, soft-core, single-X, cel-shaded sex.

This is an outrage! Can’t we kill our hookers in peace without soft-core pornography getting in the way?!

This is the same dilemma that thousands of gamers across the nation have faced when trying to purchase Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which has been pulled off the shelves at the nation’s largest retailers, Wal-Mart and Target in particular. While the game itself is still the same as it was when it hit shelves earlier this year, the rating has changed from a mature rating to an adults only rating.

And this is all thanks to a hacker kiddie who found a back door into a segment of code not accessible in the final game that allows the player to participate in sexual intercourse. This segment is only accessible if one goes out of his or her way to access it (i.e. downloading a patch from the Internet). After its discovery, the game rating board, probably angry with the game’s developers, slapped the game with a new adult rating. It is the policy of most stores not to sell such merchandise, though they were selling it just weeks before.

Now we have a grandmother suing the game manufacturers, saying they had no right to sell her a game that includes sex. A game she bought for her 14-year-old grandson. A game that originally had an “M” or “mature” rating that carries a 17+ age range. Why is she complaining now?

The new “AO”— adults only— rating carries an 18+ age limit and now includes the word “nudity” in the disclaimer next to the rating. The previous “M” rating included: blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, strong sexual content and use of drugs.

But it’s obviously the sex that’s corrupting our nation’s youth.

After witnessing the aforementioned sex scene in a video clip that is circulating the Web, this editorial board finds that, although it is offensive and probably didn’t need to be in the game (the woman’s legs were put into many unnatural positions), this should be the least of the nation’s worries about the game. We can show nudity in R-rated movies. Why can’t we show it in a video game that has the gaming equivalent “M” rating?

Why are people so shocked by sex in this nation, yet completely desensitized to gratuitous violence? How is hitting someone with a car any more shocking than sex, something a typical American has participated in by the age of 17?

There was really no merit to this rating change, taking all things into consideration.

We’ll bet our hos on it.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Summer Kent Stater editorial board.