The Gujarat government on Thursday issued a circular asking district authority to restrict the online game Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, popularly knows as Pubg.
The circular of state primary education department was issued after a recommendation by the Gujarat State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said officials.
District Primary Education Officers must take steps to enforce a ban on the game in primary schools, as is directed by the circular.
The ban was deemed necessary by the authorities as children were getting addicted to the game and it was “adversely affecting their studies”.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has suggested a ban on the game across the country, said Jagruti Pandya, chairperson of the Gujarat child rights body.
“The NCPCR had sent a letter to all the states and recommended a ban on the game. All the states are required to implement it. Looking at the negative effects of the game, we had recently sent a letter to the state government recommending a ban on the game” said Pandya.
This regulation comes after a recently released report by Quartz and Jana stating that a Pubg player spends 8 or more hours in a week on the game in an average in India. According to the survey, 24.3 percent of the respondents play Pubg for more than 8 hours a week while 52.2 percent players said they prefer to play at night.
Pubg blends the survival, exploration and scavenging elements of an open-world game with last-man-standing gameplay. The player can choose a map of their preference and then they are launched through an airplane onto the abandoned island along with 99 other players from all over the world. The goal is to scavenge the area for guns, ammo, and other defensive supplies. The player then uses the guns to knock out other players on the island and heal themselves if they got under fire.
The high-intensity and competitive nature of the games is what makes it so addicting.