I think to an extent, censoring your children from media is not very beneficial as well. Both of my parents are gamers. When GTA 2 came out (I'm 24 now), my father got me the game, and simply played it with me. I think that's the best course of action, really. It's your child, and it's also your choice, but if you're looking for advice, I would suggest playing most games with your child, violent or not, to use bonding time through a common interest as a way to teach your child and build a relationship. The worst things in this game seem to happen during the cutscenes. I don't know your child, but if you can judge whether or not he'd steal your car and run over a few police officers, steal their guns and shoot up an entire street, after viewing it in a video game, I think the most likely scenario is repeating. He could easily quote, or repeat something the characters say which would be pretty bad if a teacher heard your child. If you're really stuck between the two choices, I'd say compromise is a potential solution. Play the game with your child, and just do free-play. That way you can stay away from cutscenes and certain side mission, or the drug related things like smoking in the house. Just run around racing and taking turns playing tennis. You have to consider, that if all your kids' friends own the game, their gonna play it, or just view a lets-play on youtube. If you're next to your kid, you can at least walk them through it with a vicarious disposition, and judge how they react.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMsPtgt8DSE - Puscifer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLjrD-oXkhA - Tool (Sorry for double post, apparently I do not know how to link clickable videos.)
I've never been too fond of the GTA soundtracks. I think the radio songs I really liked were Faith No More's Midlife Crisis in San Andreas, and the all Bob Marley Station in GTAIV. I tend to just listen to the talk radio's because they are hilarious. I wouldn't mind some older punk music, like Iggy Pop or Dead Kennedys I don't imagine ever seeing it, but I'd love to have a progressive, or at least "weird" radio station, with Radiohead, Puscifer and of course, Tool
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