New Delhi, Feb 8 : The grandfather of the three minor sisters who allegedly jumped to their death from a ninth-floor flat in Ghaziabad urged the government to ban the Korean task-based game that the girls were reportedly addicted to.
He told that such a move could prevent other children from taking extreme steps.
“I fold my hands before the government and request that the game be banned, so that no more such deaths or suicides happen,” said Dilip, the maternal grandfather of the three sisters, a resident of Seelampur in northeast Delhi.
Even though initial investigations have not revealed the use of any Korean task-based app by the girls, a nine-page pocket diary recovered from the room of three sisters has offered a glimpse into their inner world, marked by an intense attachment to Korean culture and anguish over family strife.
According to the police, the diary also showed the loneliness and the stress of Nishika (16), Prachi (14), and Pakhi (12) living in a large family struggling under heavy debt.
After the girls jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor of their high-rise building, their father, Chetan Kumar, claimed they had been playing a Korean game for close to three years and had not attended school since then.
In the wake of the incident, several people, including members of a political outfit, staged protests in parts of the city on Sunday against online games and their growing influence on children.
Protesters in West Delhi’s Subhash Nagar also demanded that children below the age of 16 be barred from accessing such games.
Leading the protest, Paramjit Singh Pamma, the president of the National Akali Dal, said the government must introduce a strict law to protect young children from the dangers of online gaming.
“These online games are destroying children’s futures and pushing them on the brink of suicide,” he said.
Pamma urged the government to monitor such apps closely and ban them altogether.
“There should be a restriction mode in these games so that even if children try to access them, they cannot do so without their parents’ permission,” she added.
