Government proposes policy on online gaming and ban on online betting ads on social media platform
- January 3, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
No Comments
Government proposes policy on online gaming and ban on online betting ads on social media platform
Subject: Polity
Context:
- Recently, the Central government has proposed amendments to ‘The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, to regulate online gaming sector in India.
More about the news:
- The proposal aimed at safeguarding users against potential harm from skill-based games.
- Around 40 to 45 percent of the gamers in India are women, and therefore it was all the more important to keep the gaming ecosystem safe.
- To regulate online gaming platforms as intermediaries online gaming firms will be required to undertake additional due diligence, including:
- KYC of users
- Transparent withdrawal and refund of money
- A fair distribution of winnings
- Moreover, online games will have to register with a self-regulatory body, and only games that are cleared by the body will be allowed to legally operate in India.
- The gaming firms will be required to follow norms that are laid down for entities regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.
- The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology would be the nodal ministry to regulate online gaming, except for the e-sports category on which the Department of Sports can take the lead.
- Certain other aspects of online gaming such as advertisements, code of ethics relating to content classifications, etc. could be regulated by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
- The Consumer Affairs Ministry can regulate the sector for unfair trade practices.
- There will be a Self-Regulatory body which will have a board of directors with five members from diverse fields including online gaming, public policy, IT, psychology, and medicine.
- There could be more than one self-regulatory body.
- The body must ensure that the registered games don’t have anything:
- which is not in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India
- defense of India,
- security of the state
- friendly relations with foreign states
- public order
- incites the commission of any cognizable offence relating to the aforesaid.
- Moreover, the Government has proposed to ban the advertisements of online betting sites on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
- Social media platforms will have to seek verification from a proposed self regulatory body about whether an online gaming company has been registered with it, before hosting its advertisements