An 11 year-old in Blackpool, England has been caught by local police driving an actual car, all because a family member “was fed up with the child playing Grand Theft Auto all day on the Playstation”.
Lancaster Police say the boy was driving this Vauxhall Astra (pictured below) around a car park, having been brought there by the unnamed family member for “practice”.
The driver of this car was 11 years old… (yes, eleven!) A family member was fed up with the child playing Grand Theft Auto all day on the Playstation, so brought him out to practice driving on a car park Blackpool… The adult has been reported for traffic offences. #T2TacOps pic.twitter.com/TBqKmmOUfG
— Lancs Road Police (@LancsRoadPolice) March 1, 2020
Despite this adult’s best intentions, they’ve been reported for “traffic offences”, mostly down to the fact you can’t legally get behind the wheel of a car in the UK until you’re at least 15 and nine months, and even then only if you have a provisional licence.
This is not a videogame problem.
It’s a parenting problem.
The parent was a gamer
It was a safe enough environment not like he was driving down side streets and whatnot, still could of done it on a track or private property.
My Father built me and my brother a go cart when we were 7 and 9, was also behind the wheel of a car at 12 on a property just paddock bashing.
We used to tear around the farm as kids too, one of our paddocks used to be an air strip so it became and awesome race track.
Unfortunately in this case, private carparks like this fall under public traffic rules and law enforcement due to public access.
Sure, he’s below legal age to drive, but he’s also below legal age to play Grand Theft Auto.
I don’t think this is really video game news
Why is an 11 year old playing GTA anyway?