India weighs ban on popular online game after deaths

An Indian boy plays an online game PUBG on his mobile phone sitting outside his house in Hyderabad, India, Friday, April 5, 2019. A boy’s suicide in India after his mother scolded him for playing the popular online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has inflamed a debate across the country over whether the game should be banned. (AP Photo/ Mahesh Kumar A.)

NEW DELHI: A boy’s suicide this week in southern India after his mother scolded him for playing a popular online game has inflamed a national debate over whether the game should be banned. 

The 16-year-old’s father demanded a ban on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, known by the acronym PUBG, after his son hanged himself from a ceiling fan at their Hyderabad home following a reprimand for wasting time online rather than studying for an English exam, according to Indian news reports.