A committee headed by a retired Judge Justice K Chandru constituted by the TN Government has provided its report to the TN Government on the need for regulating online games.
The committee had an IIT Professor, a retired ADGP and a Psychologist also in the panel.
We are looking to go through the detailed report but the media reports suggest that the committee has recommended that the State government insist on the Union government enacting a national-level law against online gaming with stakes under Article 252 of the Constitution. It also recommended that the State government expedite its appeal in a related case pending before the Supreme Court.
It is also reported that the committee has recommended that the Tamil Nadu government ban online games with stakes as well as advertisements that encourage people to play such games, by promulgating an ordinance.
The state Cabinet is expected to take a view on the same. According to the report, based on the report, an ordinance could be promulgated, though legislation banning online gaming was enacted by the Tamil Nadu Assembly in February last year, the Madras High Court struck it down in August that year. The appeal preferred by the Tamil Nadu government in the Supreme Court in November last year is yet to be taken up for hearing.
The legislation enacted by other States, including Karnataka and Kerala, were also struck down by the respective High Courts.
In the meantime, a report has also emerged that the “Union Government is committed to fostering innovation and Start-ups including gaming” according to a statement attributed to Mr Rajeev Chandrashekar, MOS of MeitY.
We may also recall that DPA 2021 defines “psychological manipulation which impairs the autonomy of the individual” as a harm and it is considered that online gaming does manipulate the mind of the gamer to the extent that many games induce the gamer into committing suicides. Some of these suicides may relate to loss of money but games like the PubG and Blue Whale relate to psychological manipulation.
I also draw the attention of the readers to an article written by me in 2017 on “Cyber Hypnotism” where the possibility that games may be silently hypnotizing the gamer (Especially children).
It is also well known that many gamers support “Crypto Currencies” and the entire “Meta Verse” industry has a very close relationship to gaming.
There is therefore a need to give a serious thought to Gaming Regulation in India. Naavi.org has several times pointed out the dangers of Online Gaming and urged for setting up of a “Gaming Regulator” to provide certification for safe games that can be distributed to the public.
The new definition of “Harm” in the DPA 2021 as well as the discussions on Neuro Rights in the global scenario will trigger more discussions on the harmful effect of addictive games.
We are aware that “Gaming” is a big business domain in the world and also a source of technical innovation. But it does not mean that it should not be monitored and regulated.
Probably the Justice K Chandru Committee could start a new discussion in this regard.
Naavi
