The Pentagon has banned Pokémon Go

Recently, the wildly popular Pokémon Go mobile game has fetched unwanted attention for the list of inappropriate places people are showing up to catch Zubats and Pidgeys, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Arlington National Cemetery.

Now, The Pentagon has banned the game within its facility grounds and near all other Department of Defense facilities. The moves comes just days after it banned the game from government-issued cell phones.

Pentagon officials apparently believe believe Pokémon Go may be used to create an accurate layout of the buildings due to its use of Global Positioning Systems. It also may be possible that the game is able to get an accurate view at the insides of rooms and even confidential documents that may be laying around via the use of a phone’s camera.

The list of places that has a problem with the latest iteration of the animated Japanese media superstar is growing. The whole Pokémon franchise has been banned in Saudi Arabia since 2001 because the government believes the game promotes polytheism and gambling. The Egyptian government believes the game contradicts Islam and has been banned it for several weeks.

In Russia, Vladimir Putin is claiming that the creators Niantic has close ties to the CIA, even warning the citizens of Russia about using the game in or around government buildings There are whispers Putin may ban the game inside of Russia, but he has not yet done so.

Privately, some companies are having Poke-issues, too. The German car manufacturer Volkswagen recently sent out a company-wide email informing employees that they are not allowed to download Pokémon Go onto their work related devices. Employees are also not allowed to play the game during company hours or even on their way to work. In certain areas of the factory employees are even required to put tape over their phones camera to stop any unwanted attention to their more top secret projects.

In New York City, registered sex offenders are now on the list of people not allowed to play the game. Recently, it was made a condition of parole that such offenders not be allowed to access the game in an effort to keep children and other at risk people safe. They are even trying to get make it so Pokémon will not appear near a registered sex offender’s residence.

“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,” said New York governor Andrew Cuomo. “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.”

In Canada, a Pokémon “gym”, a place where players go to battle other trainers, was located at a Hell’s Angels clubhouse in Coquitlam, but it has since been removed.

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