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United States Games

New York Governor Bars Sex Offenders From Playing Pokemon Go (theverge.com) 246

Adi Robertson, reporting for The Verge: At the direction of Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York's correctional department has made playing online games a violation of parole for sex offenders -- particularly Pokemon Go. In a statement, Cuomo said that people on the sex offender registry are now banned from "downloading, accessing, or otherwise engaging in any internet enabled gaming activities, including Pokemon Go." He also published a letter that he sent to game developer Niantic, asking for its cooperation in preventing registrants from signing up. The decision is based on a report from two New York state senators, released last week. Jeffrey Klein and Diane Savino visited the locations of 100 registered sex offenders in New York City and found 57 pokemon and 59 pokestops and gyms within half a city block. They were particularly worried about the "lures" that draw pokemon -- and thus players, including children -- to a location. While criminals have used pokestops and lures to attract and rob players, there are no known cases of sexual predators using them so far. Nonetheless, Klein and Savino have crafted bills that would ban sex offenders from playing the game and require Niantic to remove any Pokemon Go-related items or locations from near their homes.
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New York Governor Bars Sex Offenders From Playing Pokemon Go

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  • wait what (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:25PM (#52622839)

    "require Niantic to remove any Pokemon Go-related items or locations from near their homes."

    fuck that shit I don't want pokestops removed from near where I live because some public pisser lives nearby.

    • by jedidiah ( 1196 )

      Plus this is New York City we're talking about here. You can't stretch your arms without giving someone a black eye. Any kind of geo-location based restrictions on anyone seem totally absurd. Things like this in particular will impact a large number of people in the "blast zone".

      Not even sure how that idea works in NYC at all anyways.

    • I think we all need to start playing Pokemon Go now, or else onlookers will think we're sex offenders who aren't allowed to play it.

  • by Chatterton ( 228704 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:25PM (#52622841) Homepage

    If you should remove every pokemon in a zone of half a block around any sex offender, due to the size of the sex offender list there is no more place you can put a pokemon on the map of the USA :)

    • by Fire_Wraith ( 1460385 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:36PM (#52622951)
      Never-mind that in many cases, the "sex offender" label is handed out for a wide array of crimes. Most people hear it, and they think of pedophiles and rapists, but it can cover far more than that. For instance, a drunk peeing in an alleyway can be prosecuted for indecent exposure, which is an offense requiring sex offender registration in many (if not most) states. In other states, two teenagers having otherwise consensual sex that their parents disapprove of can lead to statutory rape charges, which come with mandatory sex offender registration.
    • So there would be that advantage at least ;)

      (for the humor-impaired: /Sarcsm:off )

    • by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @06:12PM (#52624449) Homepage

      If you should remove every pokemon in a zone of half a block around any sex offender, due to the size of the sex offender list there is no more place you can put a pokemon on the map of the USA :)

      I think you got that backwards. Due to number of "minimum x hundred meters from any school, park, whatever" quite ordinary urban areas are mostly off limits and so sex offenders are squished together in small areas that meet all the requirements. Heck I've even read stories that people ended up living under a bridge because there was no damn way to avoid all the limitations - probably intentionally so they'd move and be somebody else's problem. And due to the notification requirements the whole neighborhood is perfectly aware of this concentration which leads to most everyone else getting the hell out of there. So no, you'd have lots of circles but most of them would intersect ending up not covering much of the US at all.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:25PM (#52622847)

    Sounds like a misguided attempt to "think of the children!"

  • by magarity ( 164372 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:26PM (#52622863)

    Can the governor really just declare what is and is not a parole violation? Also, what communication ensures the parolees get the memo?

    • by SumDog ( 466607 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @03:08PM (#52623175) Homepage Journal

      If a person is on parole, they are still incarcerated. They're incarceration is relaxed for a given amount of time, in an attempt to rehabilitate (that's the idea anyway). Keep in mind, prisoners are slaves. It's in the constitution. The US allows two types of slavery: convicted prisoners and people in military service.

      So yes, they can attach any arbitrary rules.

      The sex offender list is fucking terrible in the US for reasons stated in other comments. Uncle bill who rapes a 12 year old shouldn't be lumped together with an 18 year old who fucks his or her 17 year old partner (which is legal in George, but not Tennessee because we have wildly varying age of consent laws, which itself is totally fucked up).

      The justice system has no interest in truly finding a solution to sex offenders. We just punish and punish and punish and give them no hope of being able to fix themselves. In Australia, the sex offender registry is confidential. No one can access it except for very specific jobs and living situations.

    • Yup. As egrarious as it is, once your in parole world, you pretty much dont have civil rights anymore.

      Or at least the government seems to think so. Not all the lawyers, and judges for that matter, agree, but some shmoe on parole for a crime thats hard to publically defend (Ie pedos or whatever) aint got the money to fight for his rights, and is pretty much screwed.

  • You don't have to play to Lurk. All the pokemon stops are fixed in space. They become the real world equivalent of the on-line chatroom. I can't believe I just wrote that last bass ackward sentence-- it's like saying I'm like a chocoholic except for me it's alcohol.

    So this does nothing really. But it probably will matter more when Pokemon go gets more inter-player interactions like arranging to meet for "competitions".

  • "Cuomo said that people on the sex offender registry are now banned from "downloading, accessing, or otherwise engaging in any internet enabled gaming activities, including Pokemon Go."

    Yeah, I don't think that's legal on the face of it unless it's part of the offender's court order, and I don't think a Governor has the power to do that in any case.

    • Re:Wait, wait..... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DerekLyons ( 302214 ) <fairwater@@@gmail...com> on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:48PM (#52623043) Homepage

      You'd be surprised what people will tolerate when it comes to a witch hunt.

    • "Cuomo said that people on the sex offender registry are now banned from "downloading, accessing, or otherwise engaging in any internet enabled gaming activities, including Pokemon Go."

      Yeah, I don't think that's legal on the face of it unless it's part of the offender's court order, and I don't think a Governor has the power to do that in any case.

      Ah, Summer. Your first witch hunt.

      • "Cuomo said that people on the sex offender registry are now banned from "downloading, accessing, or otherwise engaging in any internet enabled gaming activities, including Pokemon Go."

        Yeah, I don't think that's legal on the face of it unless it's part of the offender's court order, and I don't think a Governor has the power to do that in any case.

        Ah, Summer. Your first witch hunt.

        Gotta burn them all.

    • Public opinion not only says it's justified, it says you are probably a pedophile for suggesting otherwise.

      People need their bogeyman.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:35PM (#52622937)

    With all the other restrictions we place on them... public registries, public notifications of where they live, living area restrictions, job restrictions, firearm restrictions, voting restrictions, social media restrictions, etc. All after they served their "time" for their crimes. We throw in a restriction from playing video games that work online?

    Just ban sex offenders. Ship them all internment camps in Alaska... It's not like they're human anymore anyway. /Sarcasm

    Realistically, we need to do away with these public list and what have you. If they already served their time why are they continually publicly shamed? And don't get me wrong, I have no sympathy for rapist and molesters. We should increase the penalty for these crimes, right up to chemical castration... Keep them in prison longer (also reduce the amount we spend on prisoners...) But once they get out, they're supposed to be "Reformed." So treat them like human. Otherwise keep them locked up.

    • by suutar ( 1860506 )

      from what I've read the original idea (this was 20+ years ago, mind you) was that child molesters can't help themselves, so keeping them away from temptation (residency restrictions) and giving everyone else enough info to keep temptation away from them (publicized addresses) was a good thing. Then they started piling all the not-predator stuff on. And of course since then the attitude has changed from "they can't help themselves" to "they are responsible for their actions", which undermines the entire purp

    • What does "served their times" even mean? These people were removed from society because they were deemed too dangerous. After they leave prison they are still a considerable risk to others, hence the restrictions.

      It's not that hard.

      • Then why do you only do it for sex offenders? Plenty of other prisoners are released when they are known to be a danger to society but don't have restrictions placed on them after they have served their time. Shouldn't they have restrictions placed on them? Oh yeah, it's against their rights! But somehow that doesn't apply for a sex offender (for which the definition is very wide).

      • You're right. It's not that hard.

        If they are still a "considerable risk to others" they should not be let out of prison in the first place. We shouldn't be using prison for something so base and depraved as revenge. It should be about public safety, first and foremost, followed by rehabilitation. A comprehensive psychological evaluation should be performed on intake, and an equally comprehensive evaluation, specifically as the the likelihood of recidivism, prior to release. If the offender can't be cer

    • If they already served their time why are they continually publicly shamed?

      Because the public has this twisted idea that if we know who they are and where they live, we'll all be "safer". Never mind that you're a thousand times more likely to molested by a non family adult known to the child (teacher, coach, etc...) than by a stranger... and a thousand times more likely than that to be molested by a family member. Sex offender registries and "stranger danger" are nothing more than moral panic [wikipedia.org].

    • Prison has turned into punishment and about keeping people off the street instead about reforming people. But you can't reform people when you keep cutting back on funding. If you keep cutting back on funding the conditions in prisons will continue to worsen which will only lead to more violence and conflict. And the people leaving will be less ready to integrate back into society once they have served their time.

  • by JohnFen ( 1641097 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:40PM (#52622983)

    This wouldn't be a problem if sex offender registries only covered people who were actually sex offenders.

  • by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:42PM (#52622999) Homepage

    And playing Dungeons and dragons.

    They already are banned from going to church.

    Is there any other way we can prevent them from living a normal life, and push them to re-offend?

    Oh, oh, how about we ban them from drinking alcohol!

  • by Slugster ( 635830 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:53PM (#52623069)
    In the USA, prosecuting child molesters is the last bastion of the bureaucratic tyrant.
    No punishment is too severe and no 'right' is too sacred to revoke in the pursuit of their private, twisted concept of justice.
  • by MobyDisk ( 75490 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:55PM (#52623095) Homepage

    Sex offenders who download the game legally could pinpoint hot spots where children congregate, like pokestops or gyms, and meet them in person.

    Pokestops and gyms are at libraries, museums, playgrounds, community centers, churches, etc. Without Pokemon go, how would sex offenders find these places? I guess the mayor thinks it is okay for sex offenders to go to playgrounds, but not if they are playing Pokemon go. They have to use Google Maps to find them. Ohh wait: maybe Google Maps should hide playgrounds, museums, churches, and libraries from sex offenders! We only want sex offenders going to bars and strip joints!

    • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @03:01PM (#52623131)

      It's not the sex offenders that are the problem, its letting kids plat games that encourage them to wander out into traffic while staring at their phones chasing Pokemon characters. Just ban kids from playing it.

    • We only want sex offenders going to bars and strip joints!

      Based on election results, it seems they primarily go to the legislature office building and the executive mansion.

    • by fedos ( 150319 )
      I was just reading about this televangelist who thinks that Pokémon Go is dangerous because Islamic Terrorists (tm) can use it to find where churches are, as if there's no other way to find churches.
  • How broad is this? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jasenj1 ( 575309 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @02:58PM (#52623111)

    So no more Xbox, Playstation, iOS, Android, or Steam games then?
    Anything that talks to a server could be considered "internet enabled". As could anything you download. Seems like an awfully big overreach by government.

  • ... Niantic today announces the relocation of its corporate headquarters to Ireland.

  • by sootman ( 158191 ) on Monday August 01, 2016 @03:25PM (#52623297) Homepage Journal

    Murderers -- or, as I call them, "life offenders" -- are still free to play.

    Moral of the story: if you're going to rape someone, you may we well kill them, too. Life will be easier when you're released.

  • by mark-t ( 151149 )

    ... banned from downloading, accessing, or otherwise engaging in any internet enabled gaming activities...

    This could totally bite for a prior sex offender who has since found gainful employment as a video game developer, since many of the smaller studios I know of have a pretty strong focus on mobile gaming. This law could prevent them from doing their job.

  • So that's basically every video game that's made these days.
  • The obvious question is: WHY?! Here ya go:

    The decision is based on a report from two New York state senators, released last week. Jeffrey Klein and Diane Savino visited the locations of 100 registered sex offenders in New York City and found 57 pokémon and 59 pokéstops and gyms within half a city block. They were particularly worried about the "lures" that draw pokémon â" and thus players, including children â" to a location.

    So congratulations, New York: you electe

    • by Big Boss ( 7354 )

      Except that smart people don't seem to run for public office, or at least, they don't get very far. There might be some exceptions, but they seem pretty rare to me. I can't think of the last time I saw a candidate for a position more influential than City Council that wasn't a blithering moron and/or completely and obviously corrupt.

  • This is a bad idea, as those of us who are old enough to remember, all know.

    Back in the 1980s, before we had internet-connected PCs in our pockets, we had to use different tech to play Pokemon Go. It involved using an electronic resonator which stimulated the pineal gland. This allowed people to see into the pokemon universe, so you knew where they were. There were some problems, though.

    The biggest problem was that the resonator did not merely allow you to see; it also allowed you to be seen by the pokemons

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