PUBG banned in Nepal, officials say violent content has negative impact on children

Nepal has banned the popular online game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). “Its violent content had a negative impact on children,” an official said. "We have ordered the ban on PUBG because it is addictive to children and teenagers," news agency Reuters quoted Sandip Adhikari, deputy director at Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the nation's telecoms regulator as saying. PUBG, made by South Korean firm Bluehole Inc, is a survival-themed battle game that drops dozens of online players on an island to try and eliminate each other.

According to the Kathmandu Post, Nepal’s Metropolitan Crime Division filed a Public Interest Litigation to the Kathmandu District Court on Wednesday requesting to ban PUBG.

In India, a 16-year-old boy committed suicide in the Medchal-Malkajgiri district of Telangana after being rebuked by his parents for not studying for his class 10 SSC exams and instead playing the addictive video game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) on the cellphone all day. 

According to reports, the boy was identified as Kallakuri Sambashiva and he studied in Gouthami School. Sambashiva’s father Bharath Raj is a priest, Mother Umadevi is a housewife while his elder sister had just graduated intermediate. They lived in Vishnupuri Extension of Malkajgiri.

On Tuesday morning, the boy’s father lodged a police report about his son committing suicide after his mother chided and warned him not to play the game on phone on Monday night. My son became angry and committed suicide by hanging in his bedroom. Sambashiva was appearing for his class X final examinations and had only one paper left. It was scheduled for Wednesday.