Gamers in South India, especially Tamil Nadu, face stringent regulations due to the conflation of gaming and gambling under the term ‘online gaming’. Misunderstanding by regulators and deliberate conflation by vested interests complicate the landscape, leading to restrictive measures that impact gamers.
Now this regulatory confusion has begun to extend beyond legal texts and into popular culture. Our gaming (I’m going to use this term to refer to video gaming and let’s just call a spade a spade and use the term ‘gambling’ when we need to) brethren who watch Tamil cinema, and more specifically a recent movie titled ‘Garudan’ came across a scene that left their eyebrows raised. This scene showcasing a kid playing a mobile video game stood out due to a disclaimer at the bottom left that read, “The Video games on internet portrayed in the film are for entertainment purpose only and Public are advised caution as it causes Addiction”.
The collective sentiment of maybe 160 people congregating in one of the far throes of Reddit spelt a combination of shock, amusement and, well, “WTF?!” One of these avid Redditors happened to be someone senior here at AFK Gaming (who I cannot name, more so because none of us know what he was doing in the Kollywood sub-reddit), and I got posed the question of what the law on such disclaimers is and whether video games and portrayals of people playing video games now need to carry warning labels similar to tobacco and liquor.
Before I proceed to answer this question, let me start with one observation – more people in the video game industry need to know about this before it unironically becomes the default setting. On that note, let’s start with where it all began – cigarettes and alcohol.
India’s attempts to control the portrayal of alcohol and tobacco is itself quite disjoint and convoluted:
The Cinematograph Act of 1952 set up the infamous Central Board of Film Certification, or CBFC, but it was set up more from the perspective of theatrical screenings (a recent amendment didn’t expand the scope to OTT either, more on that later);
In 1995, with the onset of household televisions becoming more accessible and widespread, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1955 began to govern cable television broadcasts, with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (the MIB) being the government agency managing the issuance of guidelines (which it still does) under the Act and Rules; and
Lastly, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which frequently collaborates with the CBFC, implements its own set of health warnings, and is the regulator behind laws such as the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act of 2003 (commonly abbreviated to the COTPA).
Without getting too deep into the technicality of the Rules and guidelines, the requirement to have disclaimers in theatrical screenings and on television flows from these three core laws, and the process of ‘certification’ or issuing ‘guidelines’ is quite discretionary. For example, if the CBFC feels that a dance number involving a saree of a particular colour may, how do we say, ‘inflame’ the masses, it has the power to cut that scene before certifying that a movie can be screened.
Two further complications arise from the existing regulatory framework.First, the advertising of ‘harmful substances’ involves nuanced regulations and oversight by certain other entities such as the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a non-government body, which digresses from our current focus. Second, the current setup does not clearly cover over-the-top platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, which primarily use the internet as the mode of broadcast. Even the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has not provided clear guidelines on this matter.
In 2023, the Health Ministry amended the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) to include the depiction of smoking in OTT media. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is proposing to replace the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1955 with a new Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill of 2023, aiming to encompass all forms of media, though it has yet to become law.
The consultation process for this bill has begun, facing significant opposition due to concerns over potential censorship that could infringe on the right to freedom of expression. The bill’s criteria for evaluation, using broad terms like ‘public harm’ and ‘sovereignty,’ could lead to censorship of a wide range of content, from depictions of sugary drinks to firearms and everything in between.
If the previous sections didn’t directly address the need for disclaimers when depicting video game play, let’s clarify – we know that there exist outdated laws that squarely focus on alcohol or tobacco and are specific to certain mediums like theatres or cable television; on the other hand, we have something like the new Broadcasting Bill that tries to cover everything under the sun no matter the medium of publication which isn’t law yet.
Enter the S-tier regulator known as the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (commonly referred to as the MEITY) that draws its powers from another piece of law known as the Information Technology Act of 2000. Sometime in 2022, the MEITY realised that it is the regulator that can effectively regulate the internet or anything ‘online’, and one gazette notification in early 2023 later, ‘online gaming’ became its purview. Not video gaming, not gambling, but ‘gaming’.
The MEITY swiftly amended the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules of 2021, making intermediary platforms liable for facilitating illegal activities, from gambling to copyright infringement. Intriguingly, these Intermediary Rules also encompass a ‘Code of Ethics and Safeguards in Relation to Digital Media,’ administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB). This Code of Ethics mandates the classification of content and the display of warnings, addressing issues from ‘psychotropic substances, liquor, smoking, and tobacco’ to ‘discrimination,’ ‘imitable behaviour,’ ‘language,’ ‘nudity,’ and ‘sex.’
Effectively, the MIB found a stopgap arrangement by the way of the Intermediary Rules to issue guidelines covering OTT content and a wide range of what could be considered requiring warnings or certification. Not as powerful as having a new broadcasting law, but an interim measure by way of Rules that effectively regulate any internet platforms, from websites to streaming services.
Barring some obscure guideline or communique issued by the CBFC or some other regulator (we know there are multiple overlapping ones now), the short answer to this is, “no, not specifically”. However, throw in a few factors such as the movie in question being one from a State that has a very hard stance on anything ‘game’ related, to such an extent that it’s battling with the Central Government on a constitutional law basis almost every other day, and also the fact that the movie will most likely find its way to OTT platforms and be subject to the ‘Code of Ethics’ and Intermediary Rules, and the answer becomes, “okay, maybe, why not”.
If this sounds like overkill, let me point you in the direction of the fact that the new and updated COTPA (the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act) made compliance mandatory to all existing content – OTT platforms have submitted that this is simply not practically feasible since the content is already uploaded to servers and the new law would mean having to re-certify all existing content (good luck to whoever is in charge of certifying Prime’s The Boys ©). So, whoever advised that Garudan have a disclaimer included ‘just for good measure’ probably had the future scenarios in mind as well.
This cuts both ways and sets a very bad precedent, though – when it comes to censorship and regulation in general, the adage of. “give them an inch and they will take a mile” holds true more than ever, making it even more important that situations like these be questioned and analysed to understand why.
At this point, I must admit that the folks over at AFK Gaming also wanted me to get into the studies that went behind classifying alcohol, tobacco and perhaps video gaming as addictive and what the pushback against mandatory requirements of including disclaimers and censoring content involving these elements were (plot twist – I haven’t listened to them, in fact, I’ve submitted this article one week later than when I was supposed to, so this may be the first and last time you hear from me).
Apart from the fact that just detangling the web of laws, regulators and regulations in India has led to an article of this size, it’s also possible to summarise the approaches in the past and extrapolate them with the next steps forward – specific studies pertaining to video games, their potentially addictive possibilities, the certifications that need to be built in to this specific art form, and most importantly, representation at the governmental level by way of organisations and federations that actually represent the video gaming industry. General arguments of ‘freedom of expression’ are already being expounded on by a litany of ‘think-tanks’ but what’s missing is a proactive push by the video gaming industry to create a loadout that involves studies and representations that can be submitted to a regulator when required. These need to be with an India specific focus, not just based on studies abroad with a different demographic.
The video gaming industry in India needs to pull its socks up before it becomes equated with alcohol and cigarettes, minus the lobbying power of those industries. Some already fear that it’s being engulfed by the gambling industry, but even worse, it does seem like what was and is a cherished pastime and hobby of many, me included, has already begun having to be ‘disclaimed’.
Ironically, let me end by adding in a disclaimer of my own – the views in this article are personal and not that of AFK Gaming’s or its affiliates and constituents. It is not legal advice and should be taken ‘as-is’. Any references to people or entities real or unreal, tangible or intangible, are only to the extent of referencing publicly available information for educational purposes (it’s fair use, it is). Please do not copy the content of this article or run it through ‘AI’ to generate a paraphrased or similarly derivative version without AFK Gaming’s permission. Please do your own research, don’t drink alcohol or smoke (anything), get some sun, spend less screen time and touch grass, et cetera.
