My Four-Year-Old Son Plays Grand Theft Auto

Ok so it's not my four year old son. But have a read of this article, it kind of makes you question nature/nurture and how society has got a lot of things wrong in the way they teach their kids.

My Four-Year-Old Son Plays Grand Theft Auto

At the very impressionable age of four, my son loved Grand Theft Auto. More specifically, the version he played was the Hot Coffee moddable, San Andreas. Before Child Protective Services bestows upon me the prestigious honor of father of the year, allow me to explain.

Hot CoffeeGaming has been a part of my sons’ life since the moment he was born, so I was not surprised when he showed an interest in video games as early as the age of two. I started him off where I began my gaming career: the original Nintendo Entertainment System. He built up his hand-eye coordination and took the bridge out from under Bowser in no time. Then, one day, he got a glimpse of me playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and asked if he could play. What happened next was quite the eye-opener.

[edit on 30-6-2010 by and14263]

Video games don't cause problems with kids. The columbine duo played doom and Jeff weise was a poster on ATS and made flash games. People who dod bad things make a choice they are not influenced by video games. The old looney toons showed people beating the hell out of eachother with just about everything immaginable.
When white kids kill peropl blame video games when minorities kill they blame poverty. Bad people do bad things end of story

Well I think this is bad.
Children are the most impressionable people in society.

At least wait till they have the right concept of good and evil first.

I'm not really sure I would let my son play Grand Theft Auto, but the parent in this story seemed to do the right thing by being there while the child was playing. Making sure that he didn't get into the more darker parts of the game.

for parental supervision.

It made me wonder, if the parent had told his child "No stealing, no raping, no murder" would the child have gone on a different pathway and spent his time on the game doing these things? Of course he would have to know what these things were.

reply to post by and14263


what are you talking about? work experience is a great thing to have....

I used to do this too when I was a child! I knew you could commit crimes though, but I preferred to follow the rules of the road to see what would happen.
Unfortunately...it wasn't very fun. ha.
Great find though - definitely proves a point.

So the father tries to justify it by watching the game with the kid?

hey dad, be a real parent and take him ouside and toss a football.

Just because your kid wants too, doesn't mean you should.

The largest responsiblity of parenting is setting bondaries.

My first thought to hearing this was "So what? I started playing games around the age of 4 myself". I wouldn't have it any other way. I'd like to think that playing games have helped me with problem solving, perception, and lonely days. Not to mention I was a pro at hooking peripherals up to a television for my family^^

However, those games were Mario,Zelda and other 8-bit goodness. I think for a game such as GTA it's best to wait until at least 13. In a few years the child will have forgotten about his GTA experiences, but subconsciously he'll have the thought of gunning people down still in his head.

The same goes for these little kids that you find online playing Modern Warfare. You should hear how some of them talk! Bottom line, I'm pro-gaming but you need to draw a line somewhere.

reply to post by KainRich


I did too. There is a stark difference between cartoon violence and that depicted in GTA where you're in control of the character.

Reckon that 7 is the "age of reason" and I would advice against my kid playing a game like GTA which involves sex(even without hot coffee),drugs, prostitution and violence.

Sure kids need to know but this does not mean we should take away their innocence at such an early age where their thoughts are just beginning to get formed.

[edit on 28-7-2010 by Leonardo01]

Originally posted by zaiger
Video games don't cause problems with kids. The columbine duo played doom and Jeff weise was a poster on ATS and made flash games. People who dod bad things make a choice they are not influenced by video games. The old looney toons showed people beating the hell out of eachother with just about everything immaginable.
When white kids kill peropl blame video games when minorities kill they blame poverty. Bad people do bad things end of story

while that may be true,
studies have shown that video games affect ones dreams, and alter behavior (which is why i don't play video games) .

Say a regular 4 year old child dreams about running through a forest, and this troubled 4 year old dreams about shooting 'bikini babes' and hearing them scream/yell in terror.

a 4 year old child, almost new to the world is born with an 'innocent' mind. Violent video games with excessive swearing won't keep said child innocent for long.

[edit on 29-7-2010 by alien101]

Personally I think it's rated "M" for mature for a reason.

Any game that lets you beat a prostitute to death with a double sided dildo after having relations with her in some random ally somewhere with no thought of any kind of consequences just for S%*^s and Giggles is not a game that is appropriate for children. Especially a 4 year old.