PUBG has been banned in Jordan, and plans are underway to ban six more games, including Fortnite.
Reports are coming out today that PUBG has been banned in Jordan. According to Director of Beneficiaries Affairs at the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, Mohammad AlWathiq Shaqrah, PUBG has been banned, and plans are underway to ban six more games, including Epic’s highly successful Fortnite.
The ban follows very similar patterns to PUBG’s recent ban in Nepal. A committee was established after receiving complaints from the public that highlighted the “dangerous spread of the game, and their impact.” The TRC then decided to ban the game after it reviewed a study of the World Health Organization, which classified PUBG as a violent game that leads to addiction and social isolation.
WHO has recently announced a newly classified “gaming disorder,” which they then added to the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases.
Gaming disorder is defined in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as a pattern of gaming behavior (“digital-gaming” or “video-gaming”) characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. For gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behaviour pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months.
At the moment, no other games have been banned, although the TRC has advised that there are six more titles that are likely to be banned, including Fortnite. No names of other games have been mentioned at this time. It would seem that the recent WHO classification is spurring more and more countries to have a look at the impact of certain games, and we may end up seeing more countries ban games that are considered addictive in the future.
