The Ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) on Thursday introduced checks and balances through amendments to the Information Technology Rules 2021 The purpose of the amendments is to control the negative impact of online gaming activities on users, especially children and other sections of society.
“While betting and gambling activities are banned under various State laws, the online gaming industry in India has seen growth recently. The rules will ensure that online games or sites that involve wagering will be banned completely including advertising or any time of presence,” said the IT ministry.
As per the rules for permissible online games released earlier this month by the Ministry of electronics and information technology, the gaming intermediaries have been allowed to form self-regulatory organisations (SROs) including experts as well as industry representatives. The SROs would be able to decide which games should be offered to users.
However, the games should not cause harm to consumers while wagering or betting have been strictly prohibited.
“Additionally, in case of any other non-real money online game that has the potential to cause user harm or affect the security of India, the Central Government has the power to require such online games to be subject to the obligations under the rules as are applicable to online real money games,” added the IT Ministry.
Furthermore, the IT Ministry highlighted that self-regulatory bodies would include safeguards that have measures to ensure that online real money game is not against the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, security of the State, and its friendly relations with foreign states.
Moreover, the SRBs should have measures to protect users from self-harm including psychological harm while having safeguards for children through parental controls and age-rating mechanisms.
Also, the SRBs should “safeguard users against the risk of gaming addiction, financial loss, and fraud through measures such as repeated warning messages at higher frequency in a long gaming session and provision to enable a user to exclude himself upon user-defined limits being reached for time or money spent,” the Ministry of electronics and information technology said.