Politicians Demand Pokémon GO Screen for Registered Sex Offenders in New York

State senators David Carlucci (D-Rockland/Ossining) and Senators Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/ Westchester) on Thursday released an investigative report, “Protecting Our Children: How Pokémon GO and Augmented Reality Games Expose Children to Sex Offenders, Westchester and Rockland Counties.”

The Pokémon GO craze, now downloaded 100 million times, presents serious dangers to children as they hunt down virtual Pokémon in the real world and may cross paths with strangers, including dangerous sexual predators, the two politicians warned in their announcement.

"This modern-day scavenger hunt, a seemingly innocuous challenge, creates the potential to lure unknowing children directly into danger by setting up locations and objectives within the game that are perilously close to the homes of registered, high-level sex offenders," they said in their report. "Sex offenders’ access to the game creates potentially dangerous situations where sites set up by the developer provide unfettered access to children who congregate in these locations."

Since the game was published less than a month ago, there have been multiple instances where the game goals and objectives have overlapped with sex offenders across the U.S., they said in the report.

In Arizona, a Pokéstop was located at the same location as a hotel that had been turned into a halfway house where 43 registered sex offenders were currently living. In another instance, a registered sex offender in Indiana was caught and arrested for actually playing the game with a 16-year- old boy on the local courthouse lawn when he was recognized by two local probation officers, they said.

In a Westchester/Rockland investigation into the potential dangers posed by augmented reality games, the senators' staffers visited 100 primary addresses of registered sex offenders to uncover the overlap between these individuals and the children playing the game.

Key Findings

• Investigators using the Pokémon GO application across Rockland and Westchester counties caught 93 Pokémon characters directly in front of the residential addresses of sex offenders whose crimes involve the sexual abuse of children or the possession of child pornography.
• In total 14 Pokéstops or Gyms throughout Rockland and Westchester counties were located within a half-block of the 100 sex offenders' residences visited during the investigation.
• In total, the investigation found that 63 of the 100 sex offenders’ addresses were within a half-block of a Pokémon GO related item (actual Pokémon, PokéStop and/or Gyms).

“Children enjoying Pokémon GO concern themselves with catching their prey — a wild Zubat, a Pinsir or a Pikachu — not becoming someone’s prey," said Klein in the announcement. "We know that sex offenders have the highest recidivism rates of any crime and we have a duty to protect our children so they can have safe fun as new technology emerges. That so many Pokémon materialized in front of dangerous sexual predators’ homes illustrates the dire need to scrub all in game activity within 100-feet of their addresses. I hope Niantic will police themselves before we pass this necessary legislation."

“Pokémon GO is the first in a long line of games that will no doubt introduce real world problems into virtual world games," said Carlucci. "Parents should be able to let their kids enjoy games without the concern of coming into contact with sexual predators. I commend Senator Klein and Senator Savino for stepping up and introducing legislation to prohibit sexual offenders from being able to play Pokémon GO to ensure the safety of our children. I am proud to be a sponsor of this legislation."

Aside from catching a Pokémon randomly in front of the home of a potential predator, other in-game elements called “Pokéstops,” “Gyms,” and “Lures” present similar dangers with the potential for sex offenders playing the game to easily identify where large crowds of children will be at any given time. Elements of the game that have high value to its users tend to attract large groups of people who are playing the game in a certain location in the real world. All of these are elements and/ or locations that the developer or a player can manipulate or monitor in the real world.

The senators say the current New York State law needs to be updated since augmented reality games had not been invented at the time the 2008 e-stop legislation that prevented sex offenders from using social media became law. No current law places any mandate on the developer to ensure the game doesn’t send children to sex offenders’ homes.

Members of the Independent Democratic Conference introduced two pieces of legislation to keep children safe from sexual predators while they enjoy new technology, the senators said.

Senators Klein and Diane Savino conducted a similar investigation across New York City earlier this summer. Klein said Gov. Andrew Cuomo took immediate steps after it was published to protect New York’s children. Still, they said the IDC will codify language that prohibits high-level sexual predators from using augmented reality games to prey on children. The members of the Independent Democratic Conference introduced S.8174 which would ban sex offenders on parole or probation from downloading and playing these games.

It is also incumbent upon game developers to ensure children enjoying its products are safe. Members of the IDC also introduced S.8173 which would require game developers to regularly consult the Division of Criminal Justice Service’s New York State Sex Offender Registry and remove all in-game objectives from within 100-feet. Non-compliance would result in fines of $100 per incident, the politicians said.