A boy from Mumbai reportedly was highly addicted to playing PUBG Mobile for a month and withdrew 10 lakh rupees ( approx $13,600) from his parent’s bank account to invest in the game. As the incident unfolded to a negative turn, he was severely reprimanded for investing in PUBG Mobile as per the report by India Today.
The boy was evidently upset by this and ended up leaving a note saying he was running away. The parents promptly registered a missing person’s complaint and a massive search was launched. Eventually, the police were successful, locating the boy in the vicinity of the Mahakali Caves area in East Andheri. The boy and his parents are currently both undergoing counseling.
Not an isolated incident
This isn’t the first time a child has spent thousands or indeed, lakhs of money, on a mobile game. Earlier this month, a boy from Bhopal reportedly spent a large sum of money on an online game and later ended up killing himself after his mother had spoken to him. In July last year, a Punjab teen had spent a whopping 16 lakh on purchasing in-game items in PUBG Mobile. The boy had been using a smartphone for online classes and instead ended up emptying the life savings of his parents on the super hit mobile battle royale.
This kind of incident involving amounts like 10 lakh,16 lakh has triggered a wave of outrage across the country, with many calling for a complete ban on games such as PUBG Mobile. PUBG Mobile itself has faced a lot of flak for its addictive and “freemium” nature, along with a number of mobile games.
This has resulted in countries such as Pakistan and more recently, banning it, in an effort to combat its addictive nature. Others however argue that banning the game isn’t the right option and that it is up to the parents themselves to exercise vigilance when handing their children smartphone devices.
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