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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."
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.
Do you D?
When I was a younger man, I knew a kid (~8 yr/o) that was put in the Big House because he attacked his playmate with a hammer. He said he got mad and 'woke up' standing over the other boy with the bloody hammer in his hand. Last I talked to him, the other kid was still not conscious. Additionally, you have to look at accidental injuries with hammers vs accidental injuries with guns. While the single instance seriousness of a gun accident is much higher, I'd say (from experience) that the collective injuries from the common hammer is much higher. In fact, I'm willing to bet that there's more hammer and tool related hospitalizations than gun hospitalizations...
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.
> 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.
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.
No, every parent has an obligation to monitor everything their child consumes, from food to clothing to entertainment.
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