Indonesia Considers Imposing Restrictions on PUBG and Other Violent Video Games

Indonesia is contemplating imposing restrictions on video games like PUBG in the aftermath of a school blast in Jakarta that left almost 100 individuals injured. President Prabowo Subianto has instructed his cabinet to examine such measures following updates on the police investigation. State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi stated to journalists in Jakarta that the government is concerned about the normalization of violence in weapons-heavy battle royale games such as PUBG. PUBG: Battlegrounds, developed by South Korea’s Krafton, is an online multiplayer shooting game that popularized the battle royale genre along with titles like Fortnite and Free Fire. Prasetyo mentioned PUBG Mobile, a version of the game created in partnership with Tencent Holdings, as a popular choice in Indonesia. He expressed the need for restrictions due to the presence of various weapons in these games, the ease of learning to use them, and the potential psychological impact of normalizing violence.