New York Makes Playing Pokemon Go, Other Online Games A Sex Offender Parole Violation

Legal Issues

from the grandstanding-is-an-art-form dept

While I don’t play Pokemon Go, I’ve still found the public hysteria surrounding the game to be endlessly entertaining. I’ve laughed as “get off my lawn” types bitch and moan simply because people are having harmless fun in ways they don’t understand. I’ve chuckled as Pokemon Go players forget that the rules of reality still apply while in augmented reality. And I’ve laughed at the absurd new lawsuits popping up to try and cash in on the phenomenon.

Continuing the trend of hysterical reactions to a relatively simple game, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo this week took the step of making online games a violation of parole for sex offenders. Not just Pokemon Go….all “similar games,” whatever that winds up meaning. In a prepared statement by the Governor, Cuomo insisted that Pokemon Go was a dangerous new avenue allowing sexual predators to prey on helpless tots:

“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.”

Cuomo also sent a letter to Pokemon Go creator Niantic (pdf) urging the company to help keep Pokemon Go out of the hands of sexual predators:

“The State has taken action to prohibit sex offenders from using this game, but we need your assistance to make certain that sex offenders will not continue to use Pok?mon GO by technologically barring their use. Working together, we can ensure that this danger today does not escalate into a tragedy tomorrow.”

So yeah, there’s obviously a number of huge problems with this. Sex offender registries are already seen as highly controversial and potentially ineffective. The majority of people on them aren’t the kind of scary “sexual predators” out to grab kids that the media and politicians like to suggest. In some cases they include people who were caught urinating in public or having consensual sex in semi-public areas. In other words, the vast majority of people on the list have zero interest or likelihood of using the game to go hunting for victims.

On top of that, banning the playing of all online games is a pretty major step in potentially ruining the lives of people trying to get back on track. Banning a specific subset of people from playing Pokemon Go alone would be incredibly difficult, but banning the playing of all online games in an age when even single player games often have an online component? It’s quite frankly impossible.

Meanwhile, such a ban would do nothing to stop a child molester from simply hanging out near obvious “pokestops” without ever having to fire up the game.

Cuomo’s reaction appears driven by a new report by New York State Senators Jeffrey D. Klein and Diane J. Savino. The report took a list of 100 registered sex offenders across New York City, and compared it to locations where Pokemon Go players gather to fight monsters or collect in-game items. They found 59 instances where a pok?stop or “gym” was within half a block of a sex offenders’ home. Granted this being the dense grid that is Manhattan, your chance of being near a sex offender’s residence at any given moment is already arguably very high.

In short we’re talking about potentially demolishing a life for playing games, using new rules that won’t be enforceable anyway. That’s before you even get to the potential constitutional questions about the freedom of assembly and due process. All so, let’s be honest, Cuomo and other politicians can piggyback on the Pokemon Go phenomenon in order to promote themselves as selfless defenders of tots and toddlers.

Filed Under: andrew cuomo, grandstanding, new york, pokemon go, sex offenders
Companies: niantic