Thailand Responds To ‘GTA’ Cab Driver Killing
By: John Vinson
It wasn’t a good week for gamers last week. Two violent and heinous crimes, committed in two places around the world both have links to video games. The first was a stabbing that occured in a taxi cab in Bangkok, Thailand. Then in a separate incident, three teenagers were arrested in an Atlanta suburb for throwing molotov cocktails at parked cars.
Thailand has now responded to their violent crime. At first they urged New Era Interactive Media Co. to pull the game from the shelves. Which I don’t understand, because if people really want a game, then they’ll go anywhere to get it. Of course I don’t know Thailand very well, so that might have been the only place to get it.
This is a priceless quote, from one of Thailand’s Health Ministry spokesman, “Some parents don’t know what their children are playing and are just happy they are not out of their sight. But these games can have very damaging psychological effect on children, especially games which depict violence so casually.”
The second sentence is pretty debatable; some studies find a connection while some dont. I’m not sure if the health minister realized he made an oxymoron with the first statement. How would parents not know what their children are playing, if they’re keeping an eye on them?
As another precaution, the Health Ministry released a list of violent video games; to educate parents:
Grand Theft Auto
Manhunt
Scarface
50 Cent Bulletproof
300 The Videogame
The Godfather
Killer-7
Resident Evil 4
God of War
Hitman Blood Money
The scariest part of Thailand’s fight against games is that they plan to setup a committee to study violence in games. If they are able to come through, then the committee could deem a game as being violent and request stores not to sell it.
I know it’s a cliche’ statement, but I’m so glad to live in America. We can be prudish at times, but atleast we get to decide as a people what’s deemed appropriate or not. I will say that video games with violence aren’t for everyone. Some kids are more impressionable than others, and shouldn’t be subjected to violent images. But this is the job of the parents to decide what their child watches or doesn’t. It isn’t up to the government or video game companies.