Distributor hands back licences, GTA banned
PRASIT TANGPRASERT & WASSAYOS NGAMKHAM
An eight-year-old boy admits he wants to be a thief, emulating an online game in which money can be easily made through assault and murder. In the game, the more crime a character commits, the more money he makes, according to the Pathom 2 student at a well-known school in Muang district of Nakhon Ratchasima.
This, he said, is why he wants to become a professional thief.
He was referring to the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) video game franchise, blamed for triggering the fatal stabbing of taxi driver Kuan Phokang on Sunday by a 19-year-old student, Polwat Chinno, in Bangkok. Polwat was said to have been obsessed with the game.
''A thief can eat whatever he likes, whenever he wants, just by killing a restaurant operator. It's cool,'' said the Nakhon Ratchasima student.
He said GTA is exciting because there are many criminal missions to complete.
''Another game, Manhunt, is even more hardcore. A mafia figure kills his enemies by slipping plastic bags over their heads or decapitating them with swords,'' he continued.
He frequently asked his mother for money to play games at an internet cafe. If she refused, he would steal from her.
But he insisted the amount of money he stole from his mother was negligible, about 20 baht at a time.
An internet cafe in Nakhon Ratchasima typically charges 15 baht for an hour of internet use. Owners of these cafes have kept a close eye on their young customers since Sunday's tragedy.
The Culture Ministry's Culture Watch Centre yesterday received a complaint that a young couple took their two children, aged about two and five, with them as they played online games at an internet cafe in Bangkok. The complainant was concerned that children at such impressionable ages should not be exposed to the gameshop environment.
Alarmed by the Sunday killing, New Era Interactive Media, which distributes GTA in Thailand, yesterday asked the Office of the National Culture Commission's (ONCC) to revoke its licence for the distribution of all three current versions of GTA _ Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City and San Andreas.
ONCC secretary-general Preecha Kanthiya said a person found playing, leasing out, selling or distributing GTA could be fined between 20,000 and 200,000 baht.
Meanwhile, the police Children, Juveniles and Women's Division was checking the number of internet cafes which offer online games.
The division would compile the information and use it to carry out a joint inspection with the Culture Ministry, Education Ministry and Information and Communications Technology Ministry.
Division commander Pol Maj-Gen Wisoot Wanichboot also warned that internet shops must remove pornographic and violent online material or face having their licences revoked.
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
Next
