Young Grand Auto Thief Steals Car

I can't help but think those people saying bad parenting caused this kid to do this are just giving credibility to the concept that GTA actually caused him to do it. Before games existed that portrayed stolen cars this shit happened and it would happen even if no game currently existed that portrayed it. Shit, i stole my mother's car plenty of times when i was younger, well before GTA and before i even played games.. ..this kid just got started at an earlier age than i did ;)

Fucking parents

I'm a little chagrined I didn't bring this story up since I live in Modesto, but in my defense, the local newspaper didn't make the obvious GTA connection during the initial stories. I'm glad the AP did the hard-hitting investigative reporting in order to blow the lid off this story.

I'm willing to wager he expressed interest in go kart racing to his parents but they were all "oh nos its too unsafe, here play these video games"

Kid is probably into racing and cars

Stupid mom.

The USA are crumbling - not because of Bush, not because of poverty or pollution or whatever.

It's all because of bad parenting.
It's just getting worse and worse.

I don't know if it were my kid I would congratulate him for actually being able to drive a car. Then I would get him racing lessons and set in that career path.

If GTA taught him to steal cars, then his parents would have come outside finding him frantically looking for the triangle button.

We have simulations for a reason... we aren't supposed to go out and attempt what we do in game, in a real world setting. That is why the game is there.

How does an eight year old kid know how to adjust his seat, wheel and mirror? Is that in GTA3 aswell?

Put mom in jail.

She must accept responsibility for allowing her child to play a game that was not meant for his age group.

The parents should be help responsible not the kid. I wouldn't let my 3 year old watch a Superman DVD tonight because get this -- I screened it before I would let him check it out. Too much violence IMO for a 3 year old. Here's an idea... stand up and be a parent to your kids -- GET INVOLVED.

I think I hear a squeal of delight from Florida...

Uhm, not pressing charges? That'll really teach the kid a good lesson. "Yeah Bobby, you can do whatever you want and it'll be ok, there are no consquences for actions you take."

Grand theft auto is a felony last time I checked.

Kids are so stupid.

Way to go, mom!

Hey... a game with car theft, murder, drugs, alcohol, hookers, cursing, and guns/knives/explosives... sounds like a good game for my EIGHT YEAR OLD to be playing.

I'm not one for sheltering. In fact, I'm really, really against that... but shit, the kid's eight.

Amazing the heated debates this type of article can spawn...

I know this is a small incident, but something occured to me the other day - we as gamers may have a problem

Parents groups are sitting there saying "It's the games' fault! It's GTA's fault!" and cry for censoring and stronger laws. And they have types like Jack Thompson to defend them.

Gamers decry "Responsible parenting! Do your job! If you raised your kid right we wouldn't be having these problems!" And have... well, no one to defend us.

But that's not the problem - both camps are trying to get something in the other camp changed. And both camps realize that in all likelihood nothing will ever change in the other camp - they'll probably never get GTA type games censored/illegal/off the shelves, and we as gamers will ABSOLUTELY never get every parent in the world to be responsible.

To make things worse for us gamers, it's WAY more likely that the anti-GTA groups will be successful than we are. Actually, since our goal is literally impossible then that stacks the deck right there.

Plus there's a decent chance we're wrong. It's possible to just be a jerk. To paraphrase a comedian: "My mom was great, my dad was great, I'm just a shithead". There's a good chance that responsible parenting won't fix it any better than taking GTA off the shelves will.

So the problem is - both camps have likely-won't-work goals, ours are just a lot more impossible.

Video games are evil. The scenarios influence people and give them an outlet to act out the fantastic.

Movies are evil. The films influence people by presenting the posibilities of the fantastic.

Books are evil. The stories influence people by alllowing them to imagine fantastic.

Creative people are evil. They write stories, direct films and create video games.

Ban creative people.

EA inherits the earth

When my brother was 9 he "stole" my parents car one night and drove it around, nothing happened to the car or him, and this was before GTA, so GTA really has nothing to do with this IMO.

Now if he drove it around wrecking into stuff, jumping things, or running people over, that might be another matter.

bad parents keep a copy of GTA3 locked up in an emergency health kit box just for times like this.

It's always the video game industry to blame. What about music? Music I feel plays just as big, if not larger role than video games do in terms of molding and shifting a kid. Okay, so GTA is "supposedly" to blame for the heist of a car by an 8 y/o....and rap music is responsible for breeding all these hardass peckers. Then you got movies, and just reality in general. What you learn when going to school, or the corner street market. I mean, this stuff exsists everywhere.

Now, I think the reason why alot of parents and polotics blame the video game industry is because many of them lack the experience with them. Majority of them (except the more mature players and developers) dont know absolutely jack shit about video games and how they work or what their purpose are.

It's all EA's fault.. I'll put money that some EA exec planted those keys in the kids desk for him to use. Also I see a growing trend of these secret EA execs behind the scenes changing events. Bush getting elected.. secret EA plot. War in Iraq.. secret EA agenda. My paychecks showing up two weeks late.. EA's fault.

I love how this is going to turn into another "Grand Theft Auto is evil" media declaration instead of the obvious "Why is this kid's mother letting him play M-rated games".

This is defintely a sign that we should lower the legal driving age in the country to 8. I could stop driving my kids to school! Yay, 20 more minutes of sleep in the morning!

Someone from my A-level Psych class once jacked their parent's car and ran over their dog at 6. WINNAR!

Honestly, as many have mentioned already, this -- and other such references to kids playing GTA -- comes down to irresponsible parenting. Parents should be monitoring their kids' gaming habits... if they don't do that, they have no right to compain that their kids are playing violent games. The ESRB already does more to educate consumers about the content of products than any other industry... I don't see any warnings on a Harlequin romance novel about how it should be avoided by any kids not wanting to spark a heated sexual rampage with the local firefighting team...

Thank God we have video games, at least 8 year olds know how to drive and not crash into anything.

What was the mother charged with? Child endangerment? I mean letting her son play a game that was not meant for kids...

Seriously though who didn't try and steal a parents/teachers car when they were under 10 ... it's just this kid got further them most of us did.

Damn it Remo!, you do this purposefully to see the heated responses from all of us!

It's too bad the mother said the words 'Grand Theft Auto' cause thats the only thing any will hear...

(and miss all the other racing games the kid plays)

The question shouldn't be if the game should be made or not, but if 8 year olds should be playing it. It is rated as an 18 in the uk after all.