Tencent Games has imposed a parental control on Pubg in order to curb the alleged “gaming addiction and cyberbullying” promoted by the game. The game developer has introduced digital clock to some games, which requires the players who are under the age of 13 to ask their guardians to open the game. According to the reports, this feature will be introduced to the Chinese variant of Pubg Mobile and Honor of Kings.
The development comes in the light of the government’s crackdown on youth gaming addiction “that has cast a cloud over the company’s biggest revenue source,” a media report said. Last year, the Chinese government had announced a number of controls over the games that can be played online and imposed several restrictions on underage players to reduce their screen time. The restrictions were imposed to curb the worsening near-sightedness among minors.
India, too, has revealed is objections with online games including the highly popular battle royale game Pubg, as parents and the government of India consider the game addictive. The parents claim that the game is making children develop an addiction which in turn affects their studies. Moreover, Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) had issued an advisory to the Directorate Of Education (DOE) and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) asking schools to prevent children from developing the online games that are “full of misogyny, hate, deceit, and vengeance…”.
Earlier this year, Pubg Mobile was banned in primary schools in Gujarat and an 11-year old sought out a ban on the game in Maharashtra from the state government.
In the letter, he said that this is an “appeal to forthwith ban online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds [PUBG] as it promotes immoral conduct such as violence, murder, aggression, looting, gaming addiction, and cyber-bullying”. If the game is not banned. “I will be compelled to seek appropriate legal [civil and criminal] proceeding as per law; naturally at your cost and consequences”, Ahad further wrote in the letter.
In another incident, a 19-year old hung himself to death when his family refused to buy a ₹37,000 smartphone to play Pubg. The mobile version of the game has over 30 million daily active players.
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