The Indonesian government is considering restrictions on certain video games such as PUBG Mobile after last week's school attack in Jakarta. In the attack, 96 people were injured after a 17-year-old student's homemade bomb exploded near a mosque during Friday prayers.
President Prabowo Subianto has ordered his cabinet to examine measures to block access to such violent video games after receiving updates on a police investigation. Indonesia has been among the countries with the highest number of PUBG Mobile players in the world since its launch in 2018.
The genre is alleged to feature various types of weapons and normalize violence. In addition to PUBG Mobile, games such as Fornite and Free Fire may also be subject to similar restrictions. How these restrictions will be enforced by Indonesian authorities has yet to be announced.
This knee-jerk reaction by Indonesia is similar to the Malaysian government's move to block certain content on Roblox due to the incident of a child stabbing his own brother out of anger a few weeks ago and a video game being scapegoated after he was stabbed to death in Bandar Utama at the end of October.
