Today, Pakistan has banned one of the most popular battle royale game, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds which is also known as PUBG. The country has temporarily banned the game after raised complaints against it being addictive and detrimental to players' health, according to a notification issued by PTA, the country's telecommunications regulatory body.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority stated in a Twitter post:
"PTA has received numerous complaints against PUBG wherein it is stated that the game is addictive, wastage of time and poses a serious negative impact on the physical and psychological health of the children,"
The Telecom authority claimed that this new step was taken after they received numerous complaints from concerned people. This was also pushed by PTA due to certain media reports which attributed cases of suicide to PUBG.
PTA said in a statement:
"Honorable Lahore High court has also directed PTA to look into the issue and decide the matter after hearing the complainants. In this regard, a hearing is being conducted on 9th of July 2020,"
On June 24, a 16-year-old boy had committed suicide in the Hanjarwal area by hanging himself from a ceiling fan of his house when he "missed his mission" in PUBG, dawn.com had reported. The police also confirmed that the boy named Mohammad Zakarya took the extreme step for not completing his task while playing the battle royale game.
"We found his mobile phone on the bed with the PUBG game on at that time near his body. We immediately called the Punjab Forensic Science Agency for further investigation into the incident," Dawn.com quoted Saddar Division SP Operations Ghazanfar Syed as saying.
PUBG has been a concern in India as well with a few reports that have linked the online game with serious addiction and in some cases, suicide. In the battle royale game, the character is dropped in their choice of map, which is usually a restricted piece of land with other players and/or a team. They are then pushed into restricted circles in order to survive the game by beating other players in the game. This carries on till the play zone is small and the gamers are pushed to be the last team/player standing.
Depending on the skillset, the player is also ranked in a system that starts from Bronze and goes up to Conqueror. The game is available in different versions for different formats including mobile, PC and consoles.
Source: The Express Tribune