Grand Theft Auto withdrawn from Thailand

The distributors of Grand Theft Auto have withdrawn all versions of the game from sale in Thailand, after a taxi driver was stabbed by a man who says the game inspired him.

Phalawat Chinno, a student, admitted murdering Khuan Phokaeng, saying he was motivated by a sequence in the game in which a taxi driver is also murdered. Phalawat stabbed Khuan more than ten times with a kitchen knife. It's not clear exactly which version of GTA (I-IV) he played, although there is a sequence in Grand Theft Auto II titled Taxi Drivers Must Die!; Grand Theft Auto IV had not yet been released in Thailand, and its release has now been cancelled.

Blaming media violence for real-life violence is an easy, knee-jerk response, but it doesn't address the social causes. It could be argued that GTA gave Phalawat the idea to select a taxi driver as his victim (rather than a postman, or a shopkeeper, for example), but the act of playing a game cannot turn someone into a murderer. Violent games can, in contrast, be cathartic, allowing us to release our natural violent feelings in a controlled situation, thus making us less violent in real life.

Violence has always been a part of human nature, and murders were committed long before video games were invented. Violence in the media is reflecting the violence which already exists in real life, not influencing it.

Just because a criminal uses a computer game as an excuse does not mean that the person is any less culpable, unless the person is either so young, or so mentally unbalanced, that they cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. Phalawat's mental state, personal morality, and socio-economic background are the real causes of this crime, not GTA.