Government of India to ban three kinds of online games, says Union IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar

The Union Minister for Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar has announced that India is set to ban three kinds of games in the country. Although Minister Chandrasekhar did not refer to it while speaking to the press, the announcement comes at the heel of the exposure of a massive conversion racket that was using online games as a platform to cajole kids into converting. Popularly known as the Gaming Conversion Racket, the scandal involves Shahnawaz Khan, who is the main accused, and Abdul Rehman, a maulvi at a mosque in Ghaziabad using Fortnite a popular RPG and Discord. The two perpetrators would prey upon children in online gaming lobbies and get them to convert to a certain religion Government of India bans three kinds of games Chandrasekhar informed ANI that the government has already developed a plan for the upcoming regulations. He outlined three specific game categories that are set to be prohibited. The minister said, “For the first time we have prepared a framework regarding online gaming, in that we will not allow 3 types of games in the country. Games that involve betting or can be harmful to the user and that involve a factor of addiction will be banned in the country.” Nevertheless, he did not disclose the criteria that will determine the classification of games within each of the mentioned categories. He asserted that the subsequent types of games will face a ban in India - games that involve betting, games can be harmful to the user, and games that involve a factor of addiction. Formation of SROs The minister stated that self-regulatory organisations, responsible for approving games that comply with regulations, need to be established within 90 days from the date the regulations are announced. During this interim period, while waiting for the formation of SROs, the government will assume the responsibility of determining which games are permissible and which are not. Which Games Are Possibly Getting Banned With discussions around a complete and robust framework to decide which games will be allowed and which ones won’t, there is a very good possibility that games like BGMI, Fortnite, Call of Duty Mobile, and other similar games in  India may get banned yet again. Along with this, several betting apps, even if they were able to get classified as games of skill, will also get banned. The three classifications that Minister Chandrasekhar spoke of are actually too broad to make any sort of a guess, even an educated one. However, one thing is for sure - in the next couple of months, some of the most downloaded applications from Google Play Store and Apple App Store will cease to exist. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .