Jammu & Kashmir Students body and medical doctors association, earlier in the month, urged the governor to ban the popular, but popular PlayerUnknown BattleGround (PUBG) Mobile game in the state over the low results in the recently concluded board exams. Now, Gujarat, a western state of India, is set become the first to enforce the ban on the addictive game.
The primary education board citing the Gujarat State Commission for Protection of Child Right recommendation, has officially sent a circular to all district primary education officers to take necessary steps to ban not just the PUBG Mobile, but also other similar battle-royale-like addictive games played by children in the school premises.
Other Indian states are also expected to follow suit, as even National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) too, opines that PUBG Mobile and similar games are making students neglect studies leading to low grades in the exams.
"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" Jagruti Pandya, chairperson of Gujarat child rights body, said to PTI.
Even the recent studies show there are alarming cases of psychological impact especially on teenagers and their parents. More than 120 cases of youths affected by PUBG Mobile were admitted at Services for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic in National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in late 2018, Bangalore Mirror reported.
Due to excessive gaming addiction, most victims were sleep deprived, lost interest in real life responsibilities, constant conflicts with parents for taking their mobile away and drastic drop in grades in the school exams.
Yes, the fancy graphics of PUBG Mobile, mission tasks are rewarding and also offers an escape from real-world responsibilities for youth. But, like everything in life, there should be a limit. As a responsible person, young readers are advised to balance real and virtual life evenly. Call me old school, but my advice to young readers is you should focus on the former than the latter. Make new friends in real life; go out to play sports, watch movies and enjoy the camaraderie, you will learn valuable life lessons, which will serve you well in the long term.
