Parents Gave Their 11-Year-Old Permission To Drive A Real Life Car Because They Were Tired Of Him Playing Grand Theft Auto
Police in the Lancaster town of Blackpool stropped a red Vauxhall Astra in a car park in the town center, discovering the minor behind the wheel.
Before I get into this I just wanted to say something. A long time dream of mine is pulling up to a stoplight, looking to my side, and seeing something odd. Not in the sense that I want to see something like the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, rather something out of the ordinary.
For example, a clearly underage kid, maybe even a dog on the drivers' side of the car, operating the vehicle. Something that will mildly amuse me at the moment but in about an hour I'd realize how absurd it truly was.
"The driver of this car was 11-years-old. Yes, eleven,” tweeted Lancaster Road Police. "A family member was fed up with the child playing Grand Theft Auto all day on the Playstation, so brought him out to practice driving on a car park in Blackpool… The adult has been reported for traffic offences.”
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These people let their 11-year-old get behind the wheel?!? Parenting 101.
This all just seems a little… backward. I feel like video games should be used as a way to expel the demons within children, not vice versa. Like I could understand if this kid was some menace - stealing cars and whatnot - and his parents gave him Grand Theft Auto to ween him off the thrill of stealing.
Nope. Your 11-year old is playing too many video games, there's simply nothing left to do. It's not like the parents have control of the situation and could just take away the game or anything. Of all the ways they could've handled the situation, they chose to let their son drive their car. What??? That was the best option?? How about you just take the kid to the playground or something. Literally anything besides letting the 11-year-old child operate a vehicle. I guess taking away the gaming console was wayyyy too unrealistic.
The other questionable part of this situation is that GTA V has a PEGI rating of 18+, so it’s not the most suitable game for an eleven-year-old, but studies have shown that most parents don’t pay attention to titles’ age ratings—as anyone who’s played the multiplayer element of CoD or GTA V can attest.
This, of course, always sparks debate. I think this is a non-factor to be quite honest. While I find it a little bullshit that I wasn't allowed to get Grand Theft Auto until I was like 16 because I "wasn't mature enough" - I understand why people don't give a fuck about video game ratings. Especially parents. They'll load whatever game into their shopping cart because their little angel asked for it.
As someone who has grown up during this revolt against violent video games, I can confidently tell you that video games have no impact on kids. They're just video games. All of the kids know that there is a difference between the real world and the video game world. Therefore, whether the video game is 'violent' or not, it does not matter. It's just been some scapegoat so that people have something to blame for larger issues.
Long story short, just let your kids play video games. They'll do far less damage on the sticks than behind the wheel of a fucking car. Plus, you won't have to deal with all the traffic charges and humility that comes with letting your 11-year-old drive the car.
PS - As someone who has driven a car in Grand Theft Auto and attempted to drive a car in real life, the two could not be any more different. Just apples and oranges. I can only assume these parents were stupid enough to think it was similar, based off of letting this kid drive in the first place. Dummies.