Ministry considers playtime limit for video games like PUBG

PERMAINAN / GIM - JAKARTA. The debate on video games and their alleged negative side effects continues as the Communications and Information Ministry seeks to impose playtime restrictions on popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG).

The ministry's information applications director general, Samuel Pangerapan, said the ministry wanted to explore options of limiting playtime on the multiplatform shooter game. 

"We have yet to form concrete plans [for restricting playtime on PUBG], but we want to look into it," Samuel said on Monday, as quoted by kompas.com.

He added that such playtime restrictions, if implemented, would not only apply to PUBG, but also to other games on the market.

Samuel said the ministry had an official video game rating guide designed to categorize games for their appropriate age demographics.

The ministry's statement comes on the heels of the Indonesian Ulema Council's (MUI) proposal to issue a fatwa declaring PUBG haram. The Islamic organization announced its concern after the shooter game was linked by some people to the recent mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Samuel said the ministry would discuss a possible fatwa with the MUI on Tuesday.

PUBG’s China-based parent company, Tencent, has complied with a demand from the Indian government to release an in-game feature that limits playtime to six hours per day. According to Tencent, the restriction was a compromise, since the Indian government had earlier planned to ban the game entirely to curb possible video game addiction.