Barack Obama talks GTA IV

Democratic leadership candidate Barack Obama yesterday mentioned GTA IV’s release in a speech… without even a hint of moral hysteria.

Addressing citizens in Indiana, Obama made reference to the game’s popularity – before seeming to back the industry’s message of it being an ‘adult game for adults’.

According to GamePolitics he nodded to GTA’s likelihood of breaking all records” before stating this [game] isn’t intended for kids”.

Obama then went on to conclude that the title would unfortunately be played by children anyway, and re-iterated his worry that video games are raising our kids” – encouraging parents to turn off the TV set”.

He said: I was just catching the news this morning about Grand Theft Auto, this video game, which is gonna break all records and make goo-gobs of money for whoever designed it.

Now, this isn’t intended for kids, although I promise you there are kids who are playing it, but these video games are raising our kids…

Across the board, middle-class, upper-class, working-class kids, they’re spending a huge amount of their time not on their studies, but on entertainment.

And so part of our job is going to have to be to inspire the entire country to say, ‘How are we giving our kids a thirst for knowledge?’

And turning off the TV set, and getting them to be engaged and interested, like their future really does matter on how well they do in school.”

The full video of Obama’s speech is available here.