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6-Year-Old Says Grand Theft Auto Taught Him To Drive

Posted by timothy on from the buck-beats-scapegoat dept.

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."

41 of 504 comments (clear)

  1. Prosecute the parents by gbulmash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Prosecute the parents by lxt · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And let's just remember here, this is a 6 year old kid. It's not like he's walking up to a counter and buying the game himself. His parents (or somebody) went out and actively bought a game where you deliver drugs and are free to have sex with prostitutes for him.

    2. Re:Prosecute the parents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You should probably be more concerned with the parts where you kill people.

    3. Re:Prosecute the parents by dmomo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let's mod the parent "Redundant". Not because it isn't valid. It's basically the only reasonable response to stories like this and I would hope the majority of posts that follow are in the same vein. But hot dang, we've beaten this to death and now it's like we're just indulging it. Mod this story redundant.

      The news story shouldn't be:

      6 Year Old Blames GTA for Car Crash.

      The story is:
      6 Year Old Crashes Car

      or

      6 Year Old Allowed to Play GTA

    4. Re:Prosecute the parents by jerep · · 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.

      --
      Do you D?
    5. Re:Prosecute the parents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well that depends where the poster is from. If it's the Netherlands, then gun violence and murder are considered a bigger social problem than drugs and prostitution. If it's America, then drugs and prostitution are considered bigger social problems than gun violence and murder.

    6. Re:Prosecute the parents by DeathElk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hmmm, interesting priorities. I, for one, would rather get stoned and laid than shot and killed...

    7. Re:Prosecute the parents by mpascal · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hey now! If we are going to blame GTA for teaching how to steal mom's car; can we also give them credit for motivating the kid to drive himself to school? What we have here is an eager young learner. What other kid has stolen a car to go to school?

    8. Re:Prosecute the parents by HiVizDiver · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You are clearly not from the US, where it's okay for us to buy guns at Wal-Mart, but OMG BOOBIES HIDE TEH CHILDERN!!!! ;-)

      Note that even as a lefty-moderate, I actually don't see anything wrong with guns. I do love me some shootin', and properly handled and locked up, they're no more dangerous than a hammer or any other object that could be used to kill someone.

    9. Re:Prosecute the parents by Starayo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, that'd be grand.

      "I played GTA when I was 6, so now I'm an orphan." :P

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    10. Re:Prosecute the parents by opposabledumbs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think you're beating a non-existent issue in this case,from reading the article on this. I'm not very sure how much GTA had to do with anything here: within minutes of the kid getting picked up by the cops, his dad was issued with a charge of criminal negligence due to a previous court order which ordered him not to leave the kid alone, and the kid stole the car to get to school and get some food.

      That seems to say that there are previous, serious home issues here, not something that can be explained away by a stupid knee-jerk, blame-the-game reaction.

      Not sure which version of GTA he may have had access to, but mine didn't show me how to turn the key while pushing the gas pedal down with the car in park.

      Besides, the kid stole the car to get to school so that he could get some food, which is incredibly sad. It's guessed that, as he is not tall for his age, he was standing on the pedals, and at some points he was exceeding 70 MPH.

      The only inference I can see to GTA is his drivintg style: speeding, overtaking, too, and an attempt at a pass on a double solid while traffic was oncoming led to him losing control and smacking the pole.

      But my argument still is: someBODY actually taught him to drive- not some game.

    11. Re:Prosecute the parents by wizzat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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...

    12. Re:Prosecute the parents by warsql · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Reminds me of an episode of All in the Family.
      Gloria: Daddy, do you realize there were x number of murders committed with guns last year?
      Archie: Would it make you feel any better, little girl, if they were pushed out of windows?

      --
      878659 - yep its prime.
    13. Re:Prosecute the parents by pha3r0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Father of a two year old, uncle of a 3 and a 1 year old: Some above comments speak of locking everything down when kids are involved. Well that's just not always possible, however my daughter (or nieces under my care) has (have) _never_ gotten into anything dangerous. Be it cleaning supplies, any of my guns or ammo, toolboxes, knife drawer or even so much as a fire ring while camping.

      God forbid it may happen one day, but god willing I or my wife will be there, close by and prepared to handle the situation.

      Now jokes aside if this young boy actually spent enough time playing GTA to figure he could drive, and his parents had not yet taught him the difference between a game and reality. AND they allowed this boy to exit the house, keys in hand, and take control of a motor vehicle then there is absolutely no one at fault then his own parents.

      You simply do not know what a child will do at any given time. You as the adult, guardian, mentor and/or parent MUST keep one eye or ear firmly dedicated to them. You must take responsibility when they knock things down at the store, show them how to apologize when you walk in front of an old man at McDonalds, and for they're sake monitor what they are doing in the moments before these things happen. It might not be an old guy in a wheelchair sometime, it could be a bus.

    14. Re:Prosecute the parents by kiwijapan · · Score: 5, Funny

      Archie: Would it make you feel any better, little girl, if they were pushed out of windows?

      Only if they were pushed into Linux...

    15. Re:Prosecute the parents by azenpunk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the other difference between a gun and a hammer is that when both are held by an attacker and an intended victim, only the gun offers either a level field or possibly gives the victim an advantage, where the hammer gives the advantage to whoever is strongest and most violent.

    16. Re:Prosecute the parents by Rick+Bentley · · Score: 5, Informative

      so guns are in fact more dangerous than hammers.

      Hammers might be a bad example, but guns are a lot less dangerous than cars. In fact, we are all much more likely to be killed by a car than a gun.

      Firearms are involved in 0.6% of accidental deaths nationally. Most accidental deaths involve, or are due to:
      motor vehicles (39%),
      poisoning (18%),
      falls (16%),
      suffocation (5%),
      drowning (2.9%),
      fires (2.8%),
      medical mistakes (2.2%),
      environmental factors (1.2%),
      and bicycles and tricycles (0.7%).

      Among children:
      motor vehicles (45%),
      suffocation (18%),
      drowning (14%),
      fires (9%),
      bicycles and tricycles (2.4%),
      falls (2%),
      poisoning (1.6%),
      environmental factors (1.5%),
      and medical mistakes (0.8%).

      Clearly guns don't kill people -- cars kill people. Unlike a car, however, only a gun can protect you from an assailant.

      As an aside, I have an assault rifle (in California, bought it just because it was being banned) a .45 and a 9mm. I also have an SUV. Believe me, I could kill a lot more people with the SUV than I could with all three guns and a wheelbarrow full of ammo. Just hit a crowded parade area, with jam-packed sidewalks, one fine day and start mowing people down. You can keep that up a lot longer in an SUV than you can shooting on the street corner (before a cop shoots you or the crowd jumps you). I can go 400 miles on a tank of gas, I could mow down most of a parade route before the cops boxed me in and shot me.

      You want to keep your kids safe? Hide the keys. You want to keep society safe? Take away the cars.

      --
      My favorite quote doesn't fit into 120 characters. Now no one will like me.
    17. Re:Prosecute the parents by wellingj · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Did I miss something or did you just deem self defense as an immoral act?

      --
      Money is the root of all evil?
    18. Re:Prosecute the parents by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you were going to be attacked by someone at a distance of 10 yards and they had a gun with 50 rounds, it would suck. But if you also had a gun, they'd be a lot less likely to try to attack you.

      --
      Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
    19. Re:Prosecute the parents by thebheffect · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're doing the same thing the article is suggesting: passing the problem off onto the wrong object. Even if you take away the guns, you still have a maniac running around looking to kill you.

    20. Re:Prosecute the parents by abbyful · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I would prefer that I had 1 gun + 50 rounds to defend myself against said attacker.

  2. Next up... by Nemyst · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now you can blame plane crashes on Flight Simulator!

    1. Re:Next up... by gbarules2999 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I got fat off Pac-Man.

    2. Re:Next up... by mr_mischief · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I got addicted to speed from Pac-Man. He pops one pill, and suddenly he's moving faster and can beat the crap out of the bullies chasing him. Fruit gives you points, but pills are good for you.

  3. Even better reason by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Even better reason by jonnythan · · Score: 4, Funny

      thank goodness ho found a pole before a hooker.

      Freudian slip?

    2. Re:Even better reason by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The parents had car keys where the six year old could get them?

      Your parents didn't?

      As far as I can recall, my parents have put their keys and wallet/purse in the same easy-to-reach place for over 20 years.

      Really, it isn't like kids didn't go joyriding in or steal cars 'back in the day',
      the media just didn't sensationalize it by shouting "ZOMG VIDEO GAMEZ"

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    3. Re:Even better reason by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      My six year old son can drive games like tux cart and mario cart. He watches my wife and I drive. he knows where the car keys are too, but I am not the slightest bit concerned that he will start doing adult things like driving the car.

      A six year old is perfectly capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong without being wrapped in cotton wool.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    4. Re:Even better reason by Tamran · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hell, I give me niece my car keys to play with. Course, she's only 1...

      Do you know where your car is right now?

    5. Re:Even better reason by The+Wooden+Badger · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not that I disagree with you. I agree in almost all counts, but there are cases where the obvious social "rights" and "wrongs" are not so obvious. To my oldest they are obvious. To my child with Asperger's Syndrome they are not so obvious. He in fact decided to take the car for a drive once (probably at about this same age). He was able to unlock the car, put the key in the ignition and put it into neutral. He didn't have starting the car figured out, so it just rolled until the topography stopped it.

      My son didn't end up hurting anyone or doing any property damage, but to him it wasn't obvious that what he was doing was wrong. I could see a small possibility of the kid in the story in a sense being conditioned to joyride in his parents' car from playing GTA, but that assumes that the kid has some neurological condition apart from stupid parents. He might have still done this, but the likelihood could increase if he is playing games that portray it as normal.

      Ultimately the kid has stupid parents. They don't have the sense to raise a productive member of society. I think the story further illustrates their stupidity in their passing the buck to the game. He learned that behavior from them and/or they are enablers for his perpetuating that "skill" learned elsewhere. If it was just a story of some kid that fundamentally had a problem differentiating "right" and "wrong" jacking his parents' car and hitting a pole we have no story (unless some advocacy group wants to raise awareness for his condition). Instead we have the hackneyed story of "the game made me do something stupid, and the parents who enabled me."

      --
      Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
    6. Re:Even better reason by HungryHobo · · Score: 4, 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.

  4. I wish I could tag by skogs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!
  5. the real story by UncleWilly · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  6. The Real TFA by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 4, Informative

    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!
  7. Unfortunately... by goatpunch · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... GTA also taught him that you can drive through lampposts, notice that he avoided the trees.

    --
    Worst BBC News Stories
  8. this is such bad parenting. by DragonTHC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:this is such bad parenting. by Quartz25 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree with you that keeping it from kids is a good idea, but it should be in the hands of the parents to decide. I think the real problem is that GTA is being used as a red herring to distract from more deeply rooted problems that each case has.

      --
      Most people don't get why the integral of "e to the x" is so funny. Most math majors don't have a sense of humor.
    2. Re:this is such bad parenting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Now, see, I have an issue with this. As a gamer who is also a father, it is indeed possible that my son may be with me at some point where I am buying an "M" rated game. My son is quite young right now, so no employee could realistically believe that he's going to be playing the game, but 8 years from now or so, I foresee myself still playing and buying games. What then? I have to leave him at home or tell him to bugger off to look at the TVs while I pay for the game?

      And my age group gets older, this situation is going to become more and more common.

  9. Re:Pole Position by karnal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Epic fail! Pole Position didn't have reverse!!!

    --
    Karnal
  10. I blame the parents by ParanoiaBOTS · · Score: 4, Funny

    For getting a car that is driven with an analog stick and/or a D-pad

  11. That's nothing! by monkeySauce · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.