The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) was established by an Act of Parliament, the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 and is a statutory body with the prime for protecting, promoting and defending child rights in the country. The Commission started operations on 5th March, 2007 and works under the aegis of Ministry of Women and Child Development, Gol. NCPCR puts emphasis on the principle of universality and inviolability of child rights and recognizes the tone of urgency in all the child related policies of the country.
In the name of security of state and public order :-
Recently the body has been in the news for not being in favour of recommending games like PUBG Mobile in India. PUBG was banned along with 118 other Chinese apps in the month of September this year. The government said that the apps are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.
India accounts for a large portion of PUBG Mobile’s downloads and users. PUBG, that was earlier distributed in India by China’s Tencent Games sought permission from the government for relaunch in the country. PUBG Mobile India is trying to navigate a relaunch in the country but on the other side, India’s top child rights body stated that it will not be appropriate until legislations are in place for such online games.
NCPCR Meeting :-
In a meeting that was held to discuss the proposal, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson Priyank Kanoongo strongly recommended against the relaunch of PUBG Mobile in India till appropriate legislations are in place for these types of online games, according to the officials. When he was asked, Kanoongo stated that an internal meeting took place for discussing the matter.
Kanoongo told to PTI that it was an internal meeting and prima facie, the NCPCR is not in support of recommending such games in India. It was also pointed out during the meeting that the game led to the loss of many lives in India. PUBG has still not responded to the queries sent by PTI regarding this matter. A few days after the ban, PUBG announced that Chinese company Tencent Games will no longer be authorized for distributing PUBG Mobile franchise in India.
Not just in India, PUBG is banned in China despite the company being based out of China. A report by InsideSport states that there are three reasons why many countries are deliberating on ban of PUBG Mobile. The reasons include that PUBG Mobile is very addictive, PUBG Mobile does not care about the users’ health and not warning them about the ill-effects of the screen time and PUBG propagates violence.