Thai health officials have listed 10 popular video games as dangerously violent following the reported confession of a teenager who claimed his murder of a taxi driver was inspired by playing Grand Theft Auto.
“Violent video games have been a problem for a long time,” Public Health Ministry spokesman Praj Boonyarowong said on Friday. “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 a very damaging psychological effect on children, especially games which depict violence so casually.”
The furor over the killing compelled a local software distributor, New Era Interactive Media, to announce it was halting sales and distribution of the game, which is a worldwide bestseller now in its fourth edition despite controversies over its depiction of violent street life.
Players progress in the game by successfully carrying out simulated criminal activities.
Police Captain Veerarit Pipattanasak said on Friday that Palawat Chinno, 19, was arrested last Sunday at the wheel of a taxi whose 54-year-old driver was dead of stab wounds in the back seat.
Palawat was charged with murder, robbery and possession of a weapon and could face the death penalty if convicted, Veerarit said.
The police officer said an initial investigation showed that Palawat was an obsessive player of Grand Theft Auto, but that the motive for the killing was uncertain. The suspect allegedly claimed that playing the game convinced him that robbing a taxi driver was not difficult but that he didn’t intend to kill anyone.
Grand Theft Auto has been blamed for contributing to violent crime in the US and elsewhere. But defenders of such games point to the relatively few incidents reported, compared with the millions who play.
This past week, authorities in the US state of Georgia said three teenagers were inspired by Grand Theft Auto when they destroyed three cars with Molotov cocktails in a north Atlanta suburb. One suspect admitted learning how to make the firebombs from the game.
The 10 games Thailand’s Public Health Ministry suggested parents keep their children from playing are Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, Scarface, 50 Cent Bulletproof, 300 The Videogame, The Godfather, Killer-7, Resident Evil 4, God of War and Hitman Blood Money.
The ministry did not say how it selected the games, but they match exactly a list of “top 10 most violent” video games issued last December by a public prosecutor in Detroit in the US.
Thailand’s National Cultural Commission has said it would set up a committee to study violent video games.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS