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6-Year-Old Says Grand Theft Auto Taught Him To Drive
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."
Let's put the blame squarely where it lies... on the stupid freakin' parents who were letting a 6-year-old play GTA!
It doesn't take that much effort to monitor your kids. But it does mean saying no and standing up to their whining and crying. It does mean dealing with the inconvenience of not being able to always do what you want to do and having to spend some time actively engaging them.
If this kid was playing GTA, then there should be additional charges filed against his parents.
Start a happiness pandemic
Now you can blame plane crashes on Flight Simulator!
The parents had car keys where the six year old could get them?
With kids, everything is on high security lockdown. Especially when young.
I'll bet his was surprised when the pole didn't just fly out the way gracefully, thank goodness ho found a pole before a hooker.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Bad parenting.
How many kids used to grow up emulating old western movies?
What about the Rocky movies?
Footloose?
Most of the time, decent parents stop the children before they act out gun fights, boxing matches, and tractor chicken.
Stop blaming your environment and start taking responsibility for yourselves!
Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him? Surely this computer must submit also!
I would love for this to go to court and have them use this GTA defense. I totally agree. GTA is a danger to kids. We should keep it away from kids.
That being said, keep it the fuck away from kids.
My dad used to work at walmart for his retirement job and he would tell parents he wasn't going to sell them M rated games if they had little kids with them. The management backed him on it too.
Everyone who works in retail has an obligation to let parents know that games have ratings. There is such a thing as games for adults.
They're using their grammar skills there.
The summary associates this story with Jack Thompson's disbarment, which is irrelevant. Should we continue to expect such childish guilt-by-association from Slashdot, in place of reasoned argument?
Are you trying to suggest the title of the article should have been 6-year-old drives car 6 miles, thanks GTA?
Surrealism: You have two giraffes. The government pays you to take harmonica lessons.
In GTA the player never sees or simulates the use of the real controls used to drive; you use a joystick or controller to play. You are never made aware of the real controls; like an ingnition, steering wheel, gas pedal or break pedal. This kid learned to drive either by watching any number of TV shows that give a lot more information about the act of driving or by watching his parents. He is talking about GTA because he knows its the way to increase his 15 minutes of fame (or infamy) and get the kind of attention that he obviously doesn't get a home from his parents.
No it didn't, He crashed. That's pretty much the first thing you are expected not to do when you learn to drive. In fact, I'd say that "not crashing" is the essence of driving. Silly boy. Moron parents.
If only the car was manual (I believe you refer to it as a 'stick shift' on the other side of the pond) you wouldn't have had this problem. Why won't the government ban automatic transmissions? Won't somebody think of the children?!
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
I learned to drive at six, might have been seven. That old automatic station wagon of my uncles was a great thing, he even taught me the finer points of proper parking, and parking on hills. My parents on the other hand, had taught me how to drive a stick not long after, but I'd already figured it out on my own by watching their feet and how they shift, as well as listening to the engine. If I'd been able to reach the peddles I could have driven either car without much of a problem.
I guess it's one of those old things, both my parents, my uncle and most of my family either grew up on farms or lived on farms at one time or another. Came with the life, you learned what you needed to do to get through the day. This however, seems to be a blame game. Bad parenting? I'd say no parenting. Just another example of an adult dropping their kid in front of the TV and walking away. I'd say child, but obviously they didn't try to go that far.
Om, nomnomnom...
I did the same thing when I was 5 or 6. Know where I learned to drive?
BY WATCHING MY PARENTS DO IT.
You obviously live in a city.
If you grew up in the country, guns are a way of life, and quite safe.
My parents had guns for years when I was growing up. There were no laws regarding keeping them locked up at the time, so they were sitting on a rack on the wall, unlocked, within easy reach by either of us kids, in the living room.
The bullets were 6 feet away in the top drawer of the filing cabinet beside my mom's desk.
Every farmhouse around us that I ever remember going in had a similar gun rack. I was back to do some work for one of my parent's neighbours recently, and right there in the living room, is the gun rack, still. Now it's locked up, but it's still right there, on the wall beside their dinner table.
We were taught from a very early age that they were not toys, period, and we were not to touch them when our parents were not there. We did occasionally, of course, but never the guns and the bullets at the same time. (They were stored unloaded.)
Our parents did take us out on occasion for shooting practice, as an educational tool. This is how you handle it safely, this is how you aim, etc. Never once did we have an accident, even shooting a rifle at 10 years old or less.
The reason it's different in the country is that, in the city, guns are used as protection against other people, other drug dealers, etc.
In the country, guns are used as protection against wildlife, and sometimes your livelihood, or your very life is threatened by that wildlife.
When your livestock, that you have hundreds of thousands invested in is being attacked by a pack of wolves, are you going to go out with a hammer to try to get them away?
Hell no.
You'll go out with a rifle and start blasting everything that doesn't look like sheep.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
i try not to say, "i can do this, but you can't." if Taylor wants to do something he's not ready for i tell him he can learn, but that he's not ready yet. simple as that. there's nothing he cant do. and i down right expect him to take on and be successful at managing all the responsibility of a grown adult, as long as he's had the opportunity to learn how to.
Thank you so much. What is it with people who can't understand this? It's like half of /. got replaced with Helen Lovejoy.
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