De the creators of “GTA increases car theft” and “Mortal Kombat will make children try to rip each other’s spines” comes “PUBG Mobile and Free Fire can harm the mental health of young people”, and therefore, the Bangladesh Minister of Education thinks they should ban them.
According to reports from the Bangla Tribune, the government of that country is seeking to have control over these kinds of games online, and relates that the efforts to achieve it are not few, even when no official documentation has been drawn up about.
In other words, there is not even a bill. But it is still worrisome, because in 2019 the bengal government had already banned PUBG for exactly the same concerns: “the impact it could have on youth”.
But if this is a matter of “public health”, what is the Minister of Education involved doing? Well, it turns out that all this motion stems from students are paying very little attention to virtual classes (forced by the pandemic) and more to online video games.
Although Minister Dipu Moni’s plan sounds far-fetched, it is not entirely wrong. Bangladeshi students are experiencing mental problems, and the most serious of them is a growing addiction to video games, particularly these two online titles.
“Protecting physical and mental health, among other problems of young people, is an imperative for us,” said the minister, reporting that more than one government agency is involved in solving this problem. But on another point to the contrary, he also stated that “we have only a small idea of how many children and young people are playing online.”
Do they have the power to ban a game? According to the Secretary of the Additional Security Division, Md Jahangir Alam, have the ability to close any website or app that requires it, although they do not have the jurisdiction to decide for themselves, since they are only dedicated to monitoring them.
That is if the government of Bangladesh found evidence to confirm that Free Fire and PUBG Mobile are causing an educational backwardness, and damage the school performance of young Bengali, they have all the authority (and the will) to cancel the games in their territory. Hopefully these measures are not taken as an example and do not reach our country, so stop playing during classes and better pay attention.
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