If You Buy Your Child ‘Grand Theft Auto’, You’re A Bad Parent

Over the weekend, myself and another parent found ourselves discussing the video game 'Grand Theft Auto' and the fact that parents who purchase this game for their children are bad parents. The franchise has been around long enough for me to have enough understanding of the plot that I'd banned the game from my house several years ago at the wise advice of another parent.

If there's one tactic teenagers excel at with parental manipulation downplaying the negative aspects of whatever goal they're trying to accomplish is high on the list. When that argument inevitably fails the fact that Friend's parents let them (insert activity here).

After our conversation, I was curious to the depth of moral depravity that the GTA franchise had sunk to. Shocked would be an understatement of epic proportions.

Sometimes as parents, we try to stay on top of what our kids are spending their time doing and my initial research on the latest Rockstar Games installment made it easy for me to see how parents could be deceived into thinking the game wasn't so bad.

Sadly, loading Junior up in the car to give him a quick ride down to a shady crack house to pick up a few rocks is on par with mom and dad allowing their children to play this game.

Not only is (any) Grand Theft Auto bad, but any parent who willingly allows their minor child to continue playing the game or God forbid actually purchases it is a bad parent.

Again, any parent who willingly allows their minor child to play any version of Grand Theft Auto is a bad parent.

Huffington Post offers a straight-forward summary of the GTA plot line:

'In the GTA universe, players choose different missions and earn points by destroying parked vehicles, stealing cars, dealing drugs and killing pedestrians and police officers. Characters can regain health by paying to have sex with a prostitute, and can kill the prostitute afterwards to get their money.'

Self-described gamer, mother and reporter for Timesunion offered this urgent warning to parents:

'If you’re okay with buying a game for your child that includes murder, bank robbery, arson, drug use, gratuitous use of the f-and-n-words, strip clubs, and other forms of illegal activity–then I suppose no one can stop you from buying it for your kid. I would just strongly caution you to assess your child’s comprehension and mental capacity before giving them free reign over the city of  Los Santos.'

I would go a step further and encourage you to asses your own comprehension and mental capacity if you continue to allow your child to play this game.

Finally, and most disturbing, a 14-year old boy who murdered his father and brother, later confessed to police that he was inspired to kill by the games main character 'Trevor':

'Investigators later learned that Samuel had shot his brother four times with a shotgun after the latter refused to come out of the room. After finding his brother still alive, an enraged Samuel picked up a large knife and stabbed him multiple times, before finishing him off with a machete (striking him repeatedly 30 times).'

Plenty of information is available for good parents to do their own research. I'm sure the bad parents won't care because propping children up in front of a game console for hours on end playing GTA while it slowly rots their hearts and soul is easier to do than actual parenting.