Online Gaming in India 2021: Rajya Sabha Flags Concerns

Online Gaming in India 2021: Relevance

• GS 3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Online Gaming in India 2021: Context

• Recently, Rajya Sabha Chairman has asserted that online gaming has become a “big menace” and has asked the Minister of MeitY to consult with the Law Ministry to take note about the issue.

Online Gaming in India 2021: Key points

• Sushil Kumar Modi has raised the issue during Zero Hour. He said that online gaming has become a big problem for the youngsters in this country as crores of youngsters have become addicted to it.
• Because it is online, it is very difficult to prevent the kids from becoming addicted to this online gaming and now this online gaming has been converted into gambling or betting.
• During pre-Covid, the weekly time spent on mobile gaming was 2.5 hours and 11 per cent of total smartphone time was spent on gaming. During the lockdown, it increased from 2.5 hours to 4 hours and as of today, more than 43 crore people are using online gaming.
• He also said that the online gaming sector, like the crypto industry, has a regulatory lacuna and asked the Government to impose uniform tax on online gaming and come up with a comprehensive framework to regulate the sector.

Online gaming issues

• Cyber bullying: Although cyber bullying has countless forms, some forms are particular to gaming platforms. In “whispering”, cyber bullies target players directly with hurtful and harmful messages, or by spamming global chat channels with derogatory comments about their victims.
• Privacy Problems: By piecing together data from games and other sources, hackers are able to access other existing accounts such as social media or establish new accounts in the child’s name.
• Personal Information on Consoles, Computers and Devices: Another online gaming danger comes from consoles or PCs themselves. When these devices outlive their usefulness, many families take them to the local electronics recycling center or sell them on swap sites. Users often fail to delete their profiles and information, putting their financial and private data at risk.
• Webcam Worries: Whether internal or external, any connected recording device—such as a webcam or microphone—can be controlled remotely by attackers and can be used to exploit the children.
• Sexual exploitation: Online predators are older gamers who use video games to lure and groom younger victims. This can result in inappropriate messages, webcam chats or even face-to-face meetings that could lead to sexual exploitation.
• Hidden Fees: Some online games use the “freemium” model, which means they give us some content for free, however, for full game features, functions and access payment is required. In most of these cases, the games require users to attach a credit card to their gaming profile. Their card is automatically charged whenever users purchase new items or service.
• Malware: Malware such as adware and Trojans may modify a legitimate app and upload the malicious version to Google Play or another legitimate marketplace thus infecting our devices.

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