After a PUBG Mobile ban in India last September which followed a long campaign to get the game back, Krafton and Tencent's game could be facing a ban in Bangladesh as well. And it's not just PUBG Mobile, but Garena Free Fire could also be in the same boat.
According to a report by a Bangladesh based publication Daily Manab Zamin, the government is concerned about the battle royale games being a harmful effect on the children and the youth and are apparently causing gaming addiction.
- PUBG Mobile is officially back as Battlegrounds Mobile India
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Old complaint, new country
According to the report, several government bodies including the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Ministry of Education have recommended that PUBG Mobile and Garena Free Fire be banned from the country.
According to the report by AFK Gaming, this issue was taken up by the Parliamentary Standing Committee in the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in Bangladesh as well. Along with the Parliamentary Standing Committee in the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications that wants steps taken against these two games owing to their "addictive" nature.
The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Bangladesh feels the "gaming addiction" is a real issue and needs to be curbed. It even acquiesced to the fact that players could potentially use services like VPNs to bypass the ban and play the game. And large number of players in India have been doing exactly this after the ban on the game.
This is an ill-timed news for the Garena Free Fire community in Bangladesh as the developers recently announced that the game servers for Bangladesh are going live on June 8. Garena even kicked off pre-registrations for the new server.
While the complaint of popular battle royale games like PUBG Mobile and Garena Free Fire causing "gaming addiction" among the youth is not new for governments this is a first for Bangladesh. Countries like Pakistan, Afganistan, Nepal, Iran and others have banned the game in the past for these reasons. And the term "gaming addiction" broadly refers to the youth being excessively immersed in the game.
While parents and governments are of the opinion that gaming can cause addiction, recent studies by the University of Oxford seem to disprove that and even agree that video games can have a positive effect.
