6-Year-Old Says Grand Theft Auto Taught Him To Drive 504
nandemoari writes "A six-year-old who recently stole his parents' car and drove it into a utility pole has passed the buck onto a familiar scapegoat: the video game, Grand Theft Auto.
Rockstar Games' controversial Grand Theft Auto video game has been criticized by parent groups and crusaders (or in the eyes of gamers, nincompoops) like former lawyer Jack Thompson for years (Thompson once tried to link the Virginia Tech slayings to late-night Counterstrike sessions. He's since been disbarred). However, not as of yet has anyone under the age of, oh, ten, blamed the game for a car theft."
Re:Prosecute the parents (Score:4, Interesting)
This is what happens when the kids have more authority than their parents, they whine, cry, shout and whatnot and the parent is just standing there thinking "what am I going to do with them". These parents usually do everything their child ask of them thinking it will make them happy and maybe correct this behavior, when in fact it just encourages it.
I agree with the parent (post, not the kid's), a 6-yo shouldn't play an adult game that promotes stealing cars, there's a good reason it was made an adult game and this kid just proves it.
Re:games don't create accidents. (Score:2, Interesting)
They're using an old excuse "the game made me do it"
The kid is to blame here. The 6-year-old obviously has more sophisticated knowledge of vehicle workings than an average 6-year-old to be able to start a car up, take the car out of gear and get it in motion.
But very poor judgement
Followed by the parents.
Someone taught this kid how to do what he did, and it was NOT the video game.
GTA depicts cars being taken illicitly, but doesn't provide instruction in how to do it that a kid could have followed.
Stupid spin (Score:3, Interesting)
I have no great love of video games, but I really don't see the sense in spinning this story into an anti-gaming message. The kid learned something useful by playing video games. How is that bad?
Okay, six-years-old, not exercising the best of judgment, but what if the scenario was different? Say that his mom was unloading groceries when the car slipped out if gear and rolled back crushing and pinning her against a wall. The kid then uses his acquired skills to drive the car forward, saving her life. What would the spin be then?
Way over blown. (Score:1, Interesting)
GTA doesn't show the fundamentals of driving a car but it is a simulator of cars driving. Seeing common road signs, keeping to the right, the very basics anyway and I'm sure this is what the kid meant. He learned the rest from watching his parents as he knows where his mom keeps the keys and how to use them. You can't learn much more from pressing X and Square on a controller.
What some people forget while they get on their screw Jack Thompson rants is that the kid is 6! He's in kindergarten or maybe grade 1! Where was your mom when you were going to kindergarten? Mine was holding my hand walking me to school every frigging day. Naps came second if she had any at all. Most parents will be standing with their kids making damn sure that they get on that bus and usually will be waiting at the end of the day making sure they come home as well.
This wouldn't be getting the reaction that it is if the kid said Grand Turismo or nothing at all but because he said GTA we get this. Of course now Ford will have a new marking angle for the Taurus. The number one vehicles chosen by 6 year olds.
Re:Next up... (Score:3, Interesting)
Side note. In 2004 I was at an arcade and they had a huge sim plane thing $1 to play...the goal...take off in a fucking airliner and fly through checkpoint rings in the city on a timer. The thing even flew like a airliner all slow and winged whale like. I remember in the last 20 seconds before it kicked me off I tried to get it to do a loop into a spiral and the timer hit 0 just before I slammed into the scenery leaving a nice continue screen with a hair away from a building. Awesome!
Re:Prosecute the parents (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Even better reason (Score:4, Interesting)
I disagree. My five-year-old knows to drive the car you need to be 16, have a license, and have daddy's permission. She also knows that just because she can handle Mario Kart does not mean she knows how to drive. She knows that video games are fantasy and that when cars crash in real life people are hurt or even killed. We also don't neglect her or tell her we need to nap when it is time for her to go somewhere, so I guess that helps, too.
I am curious where you kept your keys while your child(ren) were young. Short of a locked safe, I honestly can't think of a place in my house my daughter couldn't get my keys if she were so determined.
We do keep things out of easy reach (e.g., knives). But those are things that can hurt her just by handling them. She knows enough to not try to reach them, but we don't want her encountering them by accident. She could reach them if she were determined, but she won't. She'd also never really have the opportunity since one of us is always around.
Car keys aren't really that dangerous in and of themselves. I'm more worried about her losing them than doing any damage with them. Just to use them in the car would take significant determination on the part of a young child, so I don't really think making them more difficult to get to is really going to prevent this type of thing if the kid is determined to have a go.
Re:Prosecute the parents (Score:3, Interesting)
GTA taught the kid how to drive? (Score:2, Interesting)
Outrage!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
> Let's put the blame squarely where it lies... on the stupid freakin' parents who were letting a 6-year-old play GTA!
That's terrible. Next thing he'll stop paying his hookers.
My family was so poor that if I wanted to play GTA I had to steal a real car.
Re:Even better reason (Score:5, Interesting)
Heh.
Many times my grandparents told me the story of how at the age of 3 or 4 my dad crashed the tractor. :D
climbed up, could just about stand on the pedals while holding the wheel. The tractor ended up in a ditch.
Now I doubt somehow that my dad ever played GTA at that age and was probably not trying to imitate any game.
I'd say he was trying to imitate my grandfather who would have been driving the tractor a great deal.
Kids try to be like their parents a whole lot more than they try to be like Tommy Vercetti.
Re:Prosecute the parents (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Prosecute the parents (Score:3, Interesting)
They didn't let him to exit the house.
The father left for work, despite a court order telling him he was not allowed to leave his son alone with the mother under any circumstance.
The mother slept.
The boy, desperate to make it to school so that he could eat breakfast (state assisted at that - aka, free), whereas if he had to stay home he would be out a meal. So he took the keys and drove off.
This is a clear cut case of parents not parenting. That's fine. It's not this kid's fault his parents are useless. Put him in a different home and put these ass clowns in jail for a while, after removing their ability to father or bear children ever again. Then move on.
Re:this is such bad parenting. (Score:3, Interesting)
No, every parent has an obligation to monitor everything their child consumes, from food to clothing to entertainment.
Re:this is such bad parenting. (Score:3, Interesting)
I totally agree. GTA is a danger to kids. We should keep it away from kids.
OK, what evidence do you have to support this assertion?
I remember being a kid. Every single time my parents forbid something, because it wasn't appropriate I sought it out anyway. And when I finally found it, it was no big deal. Even as a kid I could see my parents were hysterically overreacting, it's the Helen Lovejoy effect.
I just don't think there's anything inherently harmful about a video game. Any video game. If you have some evidence to the contrary, I'd really like to see it.
6 year olds don't volunteer... (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder who trained him in this parroted buck shifting?
And how strong is the evidence that he was at the wheel and not his drunk dad/mom?