Govt To Have Discussions With Schools, Parents This Week For Draft Gaming Rules

The government is planning to have discussions with schools and parents in an attempt to understand the impact of online gaming while making the draft regulation.

It is to be noted that there has been increasing focus from government authorities in handling children’s addiction to gaming. To carry forward the objective, the government is likely to meet associations of schools, parents and teachers later this week to discuss the issue.

During the meet, the government will have talks on the impact of online gaming on children and ways to reduce their gaming hours online, ET reported.

Moreover, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) will later also meet with non-government associations, policy groups as well as doctors, including psychologists, to have further discussions on various aspects of online gaming.

Besides issues such as addiction to online games in children, the time spent on such games and their impact on children’s mental health, discussions are also likely to include elements proposed by the IT ministry in the draft gaming rules.

“We are also looking at the larger issue of addiction. While we have asked the industry to take the lead and form an SRO (self-regulatory organisation) to deal with these issues for now, we will need laws to deal with violations. These inputs will be considered when drafting the Digital India Act,” a senior government official said as quoted in the report.

The government is reportedly working on new rules to limit the amount of time children can spend on a gaming app. Under the upcoming provisions, gaming companies may need to submit anonymised reports on usage by children. The new rules may come under the upcoming Digital India Act.

Recently, the Centre appointed MeitY as the nodal ministry to oversee the online gaming industry. The central government notified the change to the Allocation of Business Rules on December 26 to make this amendment.

Following the development, the ministry published draft online gaming rules where it proposed a self-regulatory mechanism for online gaming companies. The rules have been published as draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021.

“With the user base of online games growing in India, need has been felt to ensure that such games be offered in conformity with Indian laws and that the users of such games be safeguarded against potential harm,” MeitY said.

Regulatory instability has been one of the primary concerns for the online gaming industry as a number of states including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala have issued various notifications banning online gaming. Hence, the industry players have welcomed the government’s move to bring online gaming under MeitY’s purview.

The number of gamers in the country grew 12% to 507 Mn by March 2022 (24% were paying users) from 450 Mn in March 2021, according to a report by gaming and interactive media-focused VC fund Lumikai.

Despite the growing number of users, Indian gaming startups saw a huge 80% decline in funding in 2022 due to the regulatory uncertainty and macroeconomic headwinds. Indian gaming startups raised just $349 Mn in 2022 as compared to $1.74 Bn in 2021.