FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 20, 2005

Contact: Darin Broton, 952-851-7286 Jason Sprenger. 952-851-1602 Tunheim Partners

(MINNEAPOLIS)- Pressure from the National Institute on Media and the Family resulted in the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) today revoking the M-rating for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The National Institute on Media and the Family now calls upon all retailers to immediately pull the video game from their shelves.

"The ESRB's findings confirm what we expected, but major questions still remain," said Dr. David Walsh, president and founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family and author of the best-selling book on teenagers, WHY Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen. Earlier today, the National Institute on Media and the Family confirmed and was prepared to announce that its computer experts discovered the pornographic content on the retail version of the PlayStation® 2 disk for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

"We are pleased that two major retailers based in Minneapolis, Target and Best Buy, were prepared to pull Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas from their shelves due to involvement from the National Institute on Media and the Family," said Dr. Walsh.

"Now that it has been confirmed that Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., failed to disclose to the ESRB the pornographic content of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the National Institute on Media and the Family recommends the creation of a video game rating system fully independent of the video game industry," added Dr. Walsh. "It is clear an independent rating system is the only way parents will get the accurate information they need to make wise media choices for their children."

Computer experts from the National Institute on Media and the Family discovered and confirmed that the code for the "Hot Coffee" pornography is on the retail version of the PlayStation® 2 disk for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The National Institute on Media and the Family used a disk easily purchased from a major retailer, along with a widely available cheat code from the Internet, and accessed the sexually explicit content that was already on the disk.

The National Institute on Media and the Family previously issued a National Parental Warning that the pornographic content is easily available to players of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Last week, Dr. Walsh joined with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) to again alert parents about the pornographic content and called upon the game's publisher, Rockstar Games, to immediately disclose whether they programmed the pornographic code onto the game's disk.

The National Institute on Media and the Family is the world's leading and most respected research-based organization on the positive and harmful effects of media on children and youth. The National Institute on Media and the Family is an independent, nonpartisan, nonsectarian, and nonprofit organization that is based on research, education, and advocacy. Its MediaWise® movement is being adopted in communities throughout the country to help families make wiser media choices and encourage parents to "Watch What Your Kids Watch." For more information, please visit www.mediafamily.org and www.mediafamily.org on the Web or call 1-888-672-5437.

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