CHENNAI: With the sharp rise in the addiction to online games among the youth in recent years, the state government has decided to conduct an essay competition to bring a healthy dialogue on the ill-effects of online gaming.

Constituted in 2023, the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (TNOGA), has been entrusted to conduct essay competitions in the educational institutions here.

A senior Higher Education Department official told DT Next that the TNOGA has issued a circular to all the heads of schools and colleges. According to the official, the topic of the essay, both in English and Tamil, is “Why are students attracted towards online gaming? Is this habit leading to addiction? Is it possible to have responsible online gaming?”

All the institutions will conduct the competition at their campus and select the students for the final submission, which is set for December 17. The district-level officers would scrutinise the selected essays and would finalise the six best essays from each district.

“The total of 228 essays, which comes from all the districts, will be examined by the designated TNOGA officials and come out with the results”, he said. The final result date will be announced after the officials finish selecting the best essays.

The student who secure first prize would get Rs 10,000. The second prize for the student would be Rs 6,000, and the student who got the third prize would bag Rs 4,000. “In addition, six students,” the official said.