Online game claims life of teenage boy after failing to “miss task”

LAHORE: Late Monday, an online game allegedly claimed a teenage boy’s life in Hanjarwal area.

He committed suicide by hanging himself from a house ceiling fan when he was assigned to “miss his mission” in the most-played game Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) worldwide.

Police authorities confirmed to a local news source that Mohammad Zakarya (16) had taken the extreme step not to complete his task while playing online.

“We found his mobile phone on the bed with the PUBG game on at that time near his body. We immediately called the Punjab Forensic Science Agency for further investigation into the incident,” Saddar Division SP Operations Ghazanfar Syed told the media source.

The boy was a son of Wajid Sohail, a resident of Phase II Gulshan-i-Abbas.
“It was purely a case of addiction as the boy used to play PUBG game for many hours a day,” the SP said.

The world’s most popular smartphone game, PUBG is impacting children’s mental health.

“The PUBG has been under scrutiny for being a violent game and due to this, many countries are thinking of banning it,” the SP said.

He said the father of the boy had been repeatedly stopping him from playing the game. His father and other family members were out of the home on the day of the incident leaving Zakarya and another member alone.

While playing the game, the boy had locked his room from inside, the SP said, adding that the family alerted the police and began an investigation.

Earlier, he said, it was reported that another “Blue Whale Challenge” is an online “suicide game” targeted at teenagers who used to offer 50 tasks over 50 days.

The police officer claimed the challenge was linked to numerous deaths worldwide, said the media source.