Indian Cop Calls For Youngsters To Uninstall Video Games Including Titles Like PUBG Mobile and Free Fire.

• Indian police officer, C. Sylendra Babu has asked youngsters to “sign off computer games forever”.
• He states that gamers will experience a loss in personal relationships and that gaming causes physical, mental and social illness.
• Earlier in April, the Mumbai police Twitter handle used video games in a positive manner by creating content themed around PUBG Mobile to spread awareness about the lockdown.

An Indian police officer has called for youngsters to “sign off computer games forever” citing that it distracts them from studies and causes physical and mental illness.

C. Sylendra Babu is an Indian Police Service Officer who is currently the Director General of Police of the Railways (GRP), Tamil Nadu, India. The officer is active on social media where he has a following of over 85.6k on Twitter.

Earlier this week, he spoke about video games and condemned the gaming culture. The tweet went viral, garnering over 700 retweets and 2.8k likes.

He states:

• Youngsters who spend 1,2...12, 24 hours on gaming will have a difficult life.
  
  
• He goes on to state that gamers will not be able to focus on their school lessons or learn about the world as we know it. He also states that gamers will experience a loss in personal relationships and that gaming causes physical, mental and social illness.
  
  
• He also said that gamers will not be able to find jobs for themselves.
  
  
• So he asks his followers to uninstall all games like PUBG Mobile, Free Fire or any other single-player or multiplayer games.
  
  
• He also asked them to play ‘real games’ like football, volleyball or hockey instead of video games.

Video game culture in India has received a mixed reception from members of the Indian police force. Earlier in April, the Mumbai police Twitter handle used video games in a positive manner by creating content themed around PUBG Mobile to spread awareness about the lockdown.

In 2019, PUBG Mobile was banned in the city of Rajkot, Gujarat, India by an order of the Police Commissioner Manoj Agrawal. However, the ban was lifted, shortly after it was challenged at the Gujarat High Court.

A report by Newzoo indicates that the video game industry has become one of the largest entertainment industries in the world with over 2.5 Billion active gamers worldwide. 

The Indian video game scene and the esports scene is also experiencing rapid growth. Prize pools paid out from Indian esports tournaments saw an increase of over 180%, from just above $500K USD in 2018 to over $1.5M in 2019. One of the biggest tournaments hosted in the country last year (PMCO 2019 Fall South Asia), had an average viewership of over 63.6k and a peak viewership of 249.8k.