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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
No mention of how many hookers he had blow him and then subsequently ran over.
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!
The real story is somewhat sadder. Dad went to work, kid missed school bus, Mom was asleep (and the boy didn't want to miss breakfast & P.E. at school) so he tried to drive himself in Mom's car. Police asked him how he did it and he told them he stood next to the wheel and steered with one hand. Then when asked how he knew how to drive, he answered, Grand Theft Auto. It sounds like this came mostly from being hungry. Both parents I understand have been charged with felonys related to this.
Associated Press
Thanks for reading TRFA -- looks like you're almost right. It wasn't just GTA, either:
The boy told police he learned to drive playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam video games.
Ironically, on the directly linked TFA:
Here's hoping that the parents who allowed a child to see (let alone play) Grand Theft Auto will attract more attention that the award-winning video game (which anyone will admit, should only be played by adults).
Yeah, good job. Your pre-emptive, kneejerk, anti-Jack-Thompson interpretation has already drawn more attention to both Jack and GTA than the original article did.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
... GTA also taught him that you can drive through lampposts, notice that he avoided the trees.
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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.
Are they assuming here that a 6-year-old who had never played GTA would not have crashed his parents' car? Seriously, a driving 6-year-old is bound to get into an accident no matter what games he has played.
Seek and ye shall find.
Epic fail! Pole Position didn't have reverse!!!
Karnal
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?
For getting a car that is driven with an analog stick and/or a D-pad
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.
I had my first threesome at age 5. It was all because I played the shit out of Leisure Suit Larry and felt I needed to take it to the next level. My parents wanted to sue Sierra but back then they couldn't find a lawyer willing to take the case. What a shame Jack Thompson was too busy going after radio DJ's in those days.
Honestly, where do you take the car from park to drive in GTA. And where do you push down on the gas pedal and brake in GTA. The kid "learned" that cars get their impulse from people, but clearly, he did not learn how to drive in GTA. If that's the case, he has also learned how to take the safety off of a weapon, and how to load a magazine, and clear the weapon. C'mon. I really don't appreciate the way conclusions can be drawn based on what ever the reporter wants it to sound like. It's just a load of dung. By the way, I doubt he learned how to get dressed watching GTA...
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.
> 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.
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.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
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?
kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.