What Rubbish: Kids Learn Killing in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA 4)

We touched a little the other day on how video games are our children’s teaches and we also reported that Barack Obama shared this view, and he even highlighted the game Grand Theft Auto IV. Now it looks like CNN are taking the spotlight by attacking Rockstar’s GTA IV as a game that’s training our children to become killers. While it’s easy to understand their view, as a flying simulator game can train you to fly, a game that kills people could train you to kill.

Personally I believe that you are made a certain way, and if your going to be evil in real life, most times the world you are exposed to already with movies and news as it is, will be enough. The good news is most of us have common sense and would never think of acting out what we see in video games. CNN put it that the Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 game is teaching kids to “kill in a similar way to the recruits being trained by the military”.

Now having played games for years, I can tell you that GTA IV is in no way as detailed at killing, as the modern sim games are at flying. Saying that, kids should never be playing Grand Theft Auto IV, as it’s an 18 plus game, if they are playing, then it’s the parents that need locking up. CNN get really funny when, presenter Glenn Beck said, “It took 75 years and countless billions of dollars to train our soldiers to kill. Today, $60 buys your kid the same thing.”

The question us sensible people should ask is: Are CNN reporting that story to get public attention and make money, or do they really believe $60 for GTA 4 trains a kid to kill?