This week has been particularly rough for GTA related crime. First there was the Thailand murder, now 3 teens have been arrested in car bombings. Thursday, Milton police arrested three teenagers for bombing cars with Molotov cocktails. One of the boys told authorities he was taught to make the devices by Grand Theft Auto; a bunk claim. You can use Molotov cocktails in GTA, but it does not teach you how to make them. Not that the authorities cared.

Authorities still used GTA as a scapegoat for the crime committed. The Police Chief Chris Lagerbloom was quoted saying,

“This case is another strong example of the serious ramifications that can come from letting impressionable teens play violent video games like this one,” Lagerbloom said. “We urge parents to pay particular attention to their children’s extracurricular activities and to intervene before it’s too late.”

Again we end up with an example of a video game being blamed for violence before looking at any other avenues. Right. Makes perfect sense. There is a direct correlation between violence and video games, right? Not so much.

Lawrence Kutner, co-director of the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said something rather sensible while everyone was trying to blame GTA.

“If you look at the whole population, youth violent crime has gone down dramatically since the 1990s while playing computer games has gone up exponentially,” Kutner said.

“It may be that a kid attracted to criminal behavior is also attracted to violent games,” he said. “You can’t make the simple statement that if you expose a kid to violent games, then he’ll become violent” in life.

Going as far to say that GTA did not have an influence in this situation would be foolish. At the same time, blaming GTA entirely for the problem is equally foolish. GTA can and will make an impression upon anyone who plays it. How strong, and to what effect that impression will affect someone is a different story. GTA is no more to blame than parenting, public education, society, paint chips, and sugary cereal.

[From: AJC]