Indian police said on Thursday that an investigation had been launched into the suspected suicide of three young sisters over concerns that they were heavily \u201cinfluenced\u201d by online games and movies that they were later denied access to.<\/p>\n
Local media reported the sisters \u2014 aged 12, 14 and 16 \u2014 had jumped from their home on Wednesday in the city of Ghaziabad on the outskirts of New Delhi.<\/p>\n
Concern among experts and regulators has grown in recent years that too much screen time and addictive algorithms are harming child development, sparking authorities, including in India, to push for social media bans for children and teens.<\/p>\n
\u201c[An] investigation is underway based on the suicide note and their phones,\u201d Nimish Patil, a senior police official, told AFP on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Police in India routinely investigate the factors leading up to suspected suicides.<\/p>\n
The sisters had been \u201cdenied access\u201d to K-Pop music and Korean games and movies that they had previously played and watched online.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were influenced by Korean culture: K-pop music, games and movies,\u201d Patil said.<\/p>\n
He added that the family also appeared to be under financial distress.<\/p>\n
Their father had recently taken away their devices and barred them from watching Korean dramas and playing online games, The Indian Express newspaper reported.<\/p>\n
AFP could not immediately reach family members for comment.<\/p>\n
Korean culture has surged in popularity, especially among young people, in India over the past decades, beginning with rapper Psy\u2019s 2012 hit \u201cGangnam Style\u201d and expanding through K-pop and streaming platforms packed with Korean dramas.<\/p>\n
The case has sparked debate in India with intense media coverage highlighting concerns about young people\u2019s skyrocketing online exposure deepening mental health vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n
Two Indian states recently said they were preparing the ground for banning children from using social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indian police said on Thursday that an investigation had been launched into the suspected suicide of three young sisters over concerns that they were heavily \u201cinfluenced\u201d by online games and movies that they were later denied access to. Local media reported the sisters \u2014 aged 12, 14 and 16 \u2014 had jumped from their home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-and-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15727,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15725\/revisions\/15727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}