PUBG Blamed for Poor Exam Results, Student Body Seeks 'Ban': Report
Wednesday, 16 January 2019
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PUBG Mobile on Android and iOS is one of the most popular games in India right now. And it's this popularity that has landed it in a spot of bother with the Jammu and Kashmir Students Association. The student body has asked the Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Naik to ban the game immediately. It claims that PUBG Mobile is extremely addictive and has resulted in poor results for the recent class X and XII board exams. In fact, it went as far as to liken PUBG Mobile to drugs.
"The game should have been banned immediately after the poor performance of 12th and 10th class results but still we haven't seen any action," said Deputy Chairman Raqif Makhdoomi according to a report on Pristine Kashmir. "The addiction to this game has become more concerning than addiction to drugs as we get to see youngsters 24 hours on the mobile phones and playing the game and doing nothing. We request the governor administration to immediately ban the game."
Jammu and Kashmir Students Association Chairman Abrar Ahmad Bhat termed PUBG Mobile as a "future spoiler", the report claims, strongly appealing for a ban as soon as possible.
Gadgets 360 has requested PUBG Mobile publisher, Tencent for comment. The company has not responded to multiple requests via email and phone.
This isn't the first time PUBG Mobile has found itself in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Late last year, a viral post claimed that the game was banned in Mumbai. Though it was quickly debunked as an obvious fake.
That said, calls for banning PUBG Mobile seem rather extreme because it fails to consider other aspects of the problem such as students having unlimited smartphone use to begin with. Given that Google has built-in digital wellness tools to limit smartphone use on Android, it's evident that the awareness of other options to prevent scenarios like this isn't where it should be.