HC: menace of online, offline games must be addressed by govt. first

‘Only if executive fails to act, courts ought to step in’

There is no doubt that children and young adults are glued to their smartphones all the time these days. However, it is for the elected executive and not the courts to address the psychological issues faced by them due to addiction to online & offline games, the Madras High Court said on Thursday. The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy wrote, “It is only upon the failure of the executive to act and thereupon, the court, perceiving the matter to be a danger to society, ought to step in.” The observations were made while disposing of a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate E. Martin Jayakumar seeking a direction to the Centre and the State government to ban all online and offline games. He insisted upon a mechanism to track devices used for attending online classes and playing games. The petitioner complained of online business enterprises preying on children and young adults by offering diverse games that were addictive. He perceived the addiction to be devastating and life threatening too in the sense that it destroys the career building phase of young adults and might even lead to suicidal tendencies and extreme anger against parents and elders seeking to check the habit.