Mumbai: The many joys of boyhood are directly linked to hoodwinking parents. And these are good times for boys chafing at the oppressiveness of parental ‘guidance’. The latest version of a popular computer game called The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) looks like any other action-packed 3D animation fare in which the player goes on a mission down city lanes. The innocent user will play within the apparent boundaries of an imaginary city, modelled after Los Angeles. But many young users all over the world, including India, are downloading a free patch (a set of software codes, usually created by a hacker) from the internet that suddenly gives access to hidden alleys.

In these alleys the player can pick up girls and have interactive sex with them by tapping keyboard buttons or clicking the mouse. The keys even permit the player to experiment with various laborious positions on the animated girl, who is quite game. “She even moans. It’s really cool and, of course, I only try it when my parents aren’t home,” a ninth standard boy says.

While Indian parents appear to be in the dark, the existence of this parallel world in the Grand Theft Auto has shocked Americans in the last few days, with Hillary Clinton leading the fury. The creator of the game, Rockstar, is under attack. Rockstar is blaming game modders (hackers who write programmes that unlock the secret content hidden inside a game). It was Dutch hacker Patrick Wildenborg who released Hot Coffee, the name of the patch that opened the dark alleys of Grand Theft Auto.

But why does a game-maker like Rockstar have hidden sexual content in the first place?

A complex computer game is usually three to four years in the making. Usually, the creators make content that is not immediately released but stored for the game’s next upgrade. It’s possible that Grand Theft Auto was set to become an adult game some time in its future avatar. But young users have been treated to graphic sexual experience after running the Hot Coffee patch on the game DVD.

The DVD is not released in India but pirated copies are easily available for Rs 250 to Rs 300.

Creators wanted to hide game’s sexual content

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai:Boys are even enthusiastically burning copies of iGrand Theft Auto and distributing them to their friends. Several others with good machines are downloading the corrupted version of the game from the net.

“Parents do not know much about the games that their children are playing,” says Harish Shetty, a psychiatrist. “In fact, some parents gift such games. All that parents see on the children’s computer monitor are stars, rockets and the moon. With a mouse click the children hide what they do not want the parents to see. I would advise the parents to trust their kids but keep their eyes open.” While some games with explicit sexual content are clearly labeled ‘A’, the Grand Theft Auto does not come with such a warning, obviously because the creators intended to hide the sexual content.