The popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, popularly known as PUBG, is one of the most successful and highly addictive games that is popular among young adults across the globe right now, however, on the downside, the adverse effects of the game have massively impacted the youth.

In a shocking incident reported from Punjab, a 17-year-old boy spent nearly Rs 16 lakhs from his parents' bank account, which he had access to, on PUBG. The money was reportedly spent on buying in-app items, including artillery, passes for tournaments, and virtual ammunition over a month's duration. The boy would apparently use his father's smartphone in the pretext of studying online and used the bank account details which were already saved on his father's phone to make purchases worth lakhs. The money was being saved up by his father in order to cover for his future medical expenses as he had a health condition. The boy also used up his mother's provident fund. He would allegedly delete the text messages from the bank due to which his parents were unaware of the transactions. They only came to know about it after reviewing the bank statements.

The teenage boy's father reportedly stated, After we received details from the bank, I found that on several occasions, he shuffled amount from one bank to another to avoid nil balance. He was using his mother's phone for quite some time and she was not much vigilant to notice this. The father has now made his son work as a mechanic at a scooter repair shop. I just can't let him sit idle at home and cannot give him a mobile phone even for studying. He is working at a scooter repair shop so that he realises how hard it is to earn money. I am hopeless now as the money was saved for my son’s future, the father added.

PUBG is an online battle royale game that gained traction soon after its PC and Xbox One launch and became a sensation when the game was released on iOS and Android devices.