Around 3,000 sex offenders on parole are now banned from playing Pokémon Go in New York. In fact, they aren’t allowed to play any “internet enabled gaming activities.” According to a statement by New York governor Andrew Cuomo issued today:
“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,” Governor Cuomo said. “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.”
The focus on Pokémon Go is due to the fact that players – many of them kids – are encouraged to walk along urban streets, sometimes near residential addresses of sex offenders. The governor sent a letter to Pokémon Go’s developer Niantic to ask for their cooperation “to provide the most up-to-date information of offenders within the Sex Offender Registry.”