In fear of putting children at risk, the State of New York has stepped in on the Pokemon Go hype to make its own adjustments.
Working with the app’s developer Niantic, the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has been advised by Governor Andrew Cuomo to bar the state’s sex offenders on parole from partaking in such games as Pokemon Go.
In order to make this request possible, Niantic has been asked to “cross-reference a list of sex offenders provided by the state with its list of players,” according to Reuters, along with removing prize locations near the homes of offenders. In addition, sex offenders will we notified by supervisors that playing such games as Pokemon Go is “in violation of their parole.”
In a statement from Cuomo, the governor states, “Protecting New York’s children is priority number one and, as technology evolves, we must ensure these advances don’t become new avenues for dangerous predators to prey on new victims. These actions will provide safeguards for the players of these augmented reality games and help take one more tool away from those seeking to do harm to our children.”
