FAC Called it!!! Pokemon Go Legislation.

This past week’s FAC Weekly update was a “really/not really” satirical commentary about the Pokemon Go app and the media’s response to the smartphone game.

We wrote of the app, “What does this have to do with our movement? Absolutely nothing. So why are there all these articles coming out about the danger of Pokemon Go and Sex Offenders? Yesterday was an article entitled “When the ‘Pokemon Go’ Map and the Sex Offender Map Overlap” and another entitled, “‘Pokémon Go’ going where parents may not want it to” and last week, CBS news reported that, “sex offenders might use the app to lure children.”

 Are you kidding me?!?! As far as I know sex offenders had zero involvement in the development of the app and while people have walked off cliffs, wandered into oncoming traffic and crossed international borders while playing the app, nobody has been molested by a sex offender. So why is this something people are worried about!?!?

Undoubtedly some legislator will soon be talking about how sex offenders are trying to “exploit” a “loophole” and we need to pass legislation. All the while, registered citizens and their families will be watching in disbelief as something else we have nothing to do with and has never been an actual danger is pitched by the media and politicians as more ‘sex offender scare’. How long until Ron Book, flanked by Pikachu and Super Mario will be screaming at legislators about the need for “The Nintendo Act” to “protect the children”?

Well… it didn’t take long for two New York state senators, Diane Savino (D-S.I.) and Jeff Klein (D-Bronx), to propose legislation preventing Sex Offenders from using the App. “While these characters are mainly bought to attract people to businesses, they could be used by sex offenders to lure children and other potential victims to their homes. Klein said, he wants a law that will prevent sexual offenders playing Pokémon Go or using any similar app that is likely to appear in the future.”

OH MY GOD!!! Are they for real?!? There have been ZERO reported instances of sex offenders using Pokemon Go to lure children. Why not pass a bill that domestic violence offenders can’t use butter knives because they might use them to stab someone, or that drug offenders not be able to purchase soft drinks because the soda cans can be used to smoke crack? How about a bill that prevents politicians from playing ‘Scrabble’ because it might force them to think?