16-year-old dies playing PUBG

A 16-year-old boy from Indian state of Tamil Nadu has died of a cardiac arrest while playing popular online multiplayer game Player Unknown’s Battleground (PUBG).

The deceased, Sathish Kumar, was a second year textile designing student at a polytechnic college.

Reportedly, the cause of cardiac arrest was intensive involvement in the game for six long hours, after which he collapsed. He started shouting hysterically before collapsing and was taken to a local hospital where he was declared dead.

There is a common belief that the game causes undue stress and tension that has led to the death of Kumar and a few others. There is a lack of evidence in this regard but video games like these have been known to cause aggression and depression.

Multiple deaths of PUBG players have been reported previously and playing such games for too long is not recommended.

While no such incidents have been reported in Pakistan, the death comes days after the Lahore High Court (LHC) directed Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to decide whether PUBG should be banned in the country.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a citizen, Faizan Maqsood, against the online game, seeking its removal from the Google Play Store. The petition said that the game had a negative impact on children and their personalities leading to violent tendencies. The petition stated that the game also had a negative impact on decision making skills of children.

If PTA does go forward with the ban, Pakistan would not be the first country to take such action as some other countries have already banned the popular online game. Jordan is one of the countries which banned PUBG over its “negative effects”.