Various district regions in India have banned PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. People are literally prohibited from playing the game on PC or mobile devices. This enforcement has been in effect since March 9th, 2019. Well, since putting the ban into place the police in the Gujarati state of India have been arresting people, mostly kids, for playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

According to Asia One, the news about the arrests came after a journalist visiting the city of Juhapura in Gujarat to speak with some of the boys who had been arrested for playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds after the game had been deemed illegal.

The issue managed to capture the attention of YouTubers like TheQuartering who did a video on the harrowing situation for the young gamers in India.

As pointed out by Asia One, the police have cited claims that games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds increases violence in youth. A similar claim was also made by officials in Iraq who claimed that games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds increased aggression and helped to “ignite violence” in youth.

Nepal also had a similar decree but their supreme court was a little less enthused about jumping the gun on banning a game based on moral panics and hysteria. In fact, the courts stayed the request from the telecomms commission who originally wanted to ban the game in Nepal.

In India, however, they don’t seem to be keen on granting leniency for those playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, now matter how flimsy the reasoning for the ban is. These recent arrests aren’t entirely shocking, though, since back in March of 2019 Indian Express had reported that police in Gujarat had arrested 10 people for playing the game. So it sounds like they’ve been steadily arresting more people since then, possibly as a warning to youth to stop playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Truly gamers are the most harmless group being oppressed during the Age of the Clown. We just want to play video games and be left alone; but alas the enemies of fun and entertainment won’t allow that to happen.

(Thanks for the news tip MaverickHL and J. Black)