A couple of months ago, Pokémon Go took the world by storm. Even when it was available in only Australia and New Zealand, the whole world was already addicted to it and waiting with baited breath, merely in anticipation. A few years back, Nintendo tried a concept, similar to the one Pokémon Go uses, with their console “Wii,” by incorporating a feature which required its users to stand up from the couch and move to play the game. However, the console didn’t gain much exposure. On the other hand, Pokémon Go almost forces its users to walk around a bit – Exercise and gaming make Pokémon Go the first game of its kind. You might be wondering what can make Pokémon Go so dangerous? To quote Elizabeth Barrett Browning, let us count the ways;
Road Accident and Mishaps
Over the past few months, there have been several reported cases when people were involved in car accidents due to Pokémon Go. Now, these accidents have been occurring more and more frequently, and are happening due to a single reason – people not paying attention to their surroundings while playing Pokémon Go. In the US, there are said, To 90 major accidents due to drivers and pedestrians not paying attention to their surroundings. Here we will list some of these incidents:
- California: Two men fall off a cliff while playing Pokémon Go.
- Baltimore: Distracted player crashes into a cop car.
- Nebraska: Drunk driver crashed into a light post while playing Pokémon GO.
- New York: Player hunting Pokémon crashes into a tree.
- Pennsylvania: Teen is crossing the road gets hit by an oncoming car.
- Vermont: Drunk driver crashed while playing Pokémon Go.
These are just some of the accidents, there have been thousands of reports of people getting robbed and assaulted while playing Pokémon Go.
Trojan and Malware
Pokémon Go, itself, is a very stable app. However, there are apps on the Google Play Store and the App Store that claim that they can hack Pokémon Go. Believe it or not, these apps are very popular among the Pokémon community, even though it is common knowledge that apps like these are usually full of malware. Other than these apps, there are also guides and maps for Pokémon Go. These apps do stuff like locating Pokémon, finding nests (a spot where a certain Pokémon spawn frequently), and explain things like CP, IV, move sets, etc. that only hardcore Pokémon Go fans would understand. Now, these guides are pretty helpful, and they tell you all about the functioning of the game, but few of these apps are said to be hosts to Trojan and Malware. A few weeks ago, Kaspersky Labs spotted a Trojan in such a guide which infected thousands of cell phones around the globe. This Trojan was seen to be activated two hours after the installation of the app. It was programmed to copy data from a device and send it to the manufacturers of the program. This app was used to steal credit card details, social security numbers, bank account details, etc. from an infected device. That app was dealt with almost instantly but not before it wrecked havoc on a number of devices.
Stampedes
Yes, Pokémon Go was, in fact, responsible for causing some stampedes. If you’re a Pokémon Go fan and happen to stumble upon the Santa Monica Pier, or maybe the Long Beach, and Dragonite spawns in, a horde of people running towards the spawn site would be the most typical thing you would see. But you don’t usually see people tripping over fellow Pokémon fans and, best case scenario; get a couple of their teeth knocked out. However, some of the incidents are much more severe than that. In Taiwan, hundreds of people blocked the streets for hours as they were running to catch a Snorlax (one of the rarest catches in the game), or maybe if you talk about the US, a stampede in the NYC’s Central Park for a wild Vaporeon. These are just some of the major stampede reported around the world, and it’s safe to say that these are some of the hundreds that occur every single day.
The Bottom Line
After reading all that, would you like your child to be the one using such a dangerous app, even though it is technically just a game? Probably not. But, can you keep your child from playing it without your knowledge and away from your parental concern and scrutiny? That is quite possible. Thus, in such cases, the best thing for any parent to do is to invest in applications such as TheOneSpy, that can not only tell you if your child has installed this app onto their devices, but also help you delete this app and consequently block it so that your child can no longer use it or download it again.
