‘One kid thought he was a sniper, locked himself in terrace for 4 days’

With the suicide of a 13-year-old Dadar boy who died as a battle game character, cyber psychologists and police officers feel it’s high time that parents monitor how their child is spending screen-time

Could an online battle game have influenced 13-year-old Dadar resident Tirthesh Chetan Khanolkar to take his life? This question has left the police, investigating his death, and several cyber experts, baffled. Khanolkar hanged himself at his home on February 13, covering one of his eyes, perhaps to look like a character from the online Garena Free Fire game. Cyber psychologists believe that with students spending hours on their smartphones due to virtual schooling post-pandemic, young children are increasingly getting addicted to online games, where the lines between reality and fiction are often blurred.

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