Saudi Arabia has decided to ban 47 online games after allegations that two children committed suicide because of these games. It was reported that the children were encouraged to do so in an online video game. The Saudi General Commission for Audio-Visual Media announced this ban on Monday. The ban is applied to the games which did not follow the rules and regulations and violated several laws.
The ban is applied after the death of a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old-girl who killed themselves after taking the Blue Whale Challenge. The game is known to give a series of challenging tasks to the players, and most of these tasks were of self-harming nature. The final one was to commit suicide to complete all the challenges successfully. The death of these children affected their families along with the Saudi General Commission for Audio-Visual Media, which resulted in a ban of nearly 50 games as safety measures to prevent further incidents.
This action clearly shows that Saudi Arabia is very serious about this issue. Some of the games banned by the Saudi government include Agents of Mayhem, Bayonetta 2, Devils Third, Deadpool, Grand Theft Auto V, Dante’s Inferno, Draw to Death, The Witcher 3, Theif, and, Watch Dog.
Children cannot be supervised all the time, and most parents are unable to keep a check on the changing behavior of their children as a result of playing such online games. This leads to severe circumstances eventually. Banning these video games which have the potential to put a negative impact on the kids is a good move from the Saudi government and might prove fruitful in decreasing the psychological problems in children. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section.
