Pokémon GO is insanely popular. it has been hailed as one of the most downloaded apps in both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Pokémon GO reaches a wide audience, especially children as they are actually the Pokémon franchise’s target audience. Letting a child play Pokémon GO unsupervised can be dangerous, there are a lot of dangers you can encounter even as an adult. Being responsible for a child who wants to play Pokémon GO, you should know the pointers that you can teach the child to maximize their safety and minimize the risks they’ll be taking.
Traffic
Oncoming traffic is a concern anywhere, not just busy roads but even more so on roads that see little of it. Anyone playing Pokémon GO will be distracted by their smartphones and children are a lot more vulnerable than adults. Teaching your child to set aside their phone while walking anywhere is a step towards general safety that will be useful even as the child grows up.
Exploration
Anywhere in the world, there will always be dangerous areas. Teaching a child to stay away from such areas, even when not playing Pokémon GO is a wise move. Alternatively, you can restrict your child to only play where it is generally safe and can be supervised by an adult. Teaching a child to avoid places might be awkward and hard to explain but if their safety is your priority, no amount of awkwardness should keep you from instilling habits that will keep them away from danger.
Strangers
Teach a child about “Stranger Danger” is a hallmark of American culture. But, children might forget all about that when they’re playing videogames and especially when they’re out playing Pokémon GO. Teaching your child again about “Stranger Danger” is one of the ways you can safeguard them against strangers that they might meet when playing Pokémon GO alone.
Privacy
A widespread danger of online interactions is the breach of privacy. Teaching anyone to limit the information that they give out is a daunting task. Much more if it is to a child. A practical way of setting up your child’s privacy in Pokémon GO is to supervise them. How? By creating their account and making sure that the information that they will give out are not risky information.
Purchases
Pokémon GO is a free-to-play game. However, it has a lot of in-app purchases. A simple solution to this risk is to not give them any of your bank account information. This way, they cannot make purchases that will become troublesome for your budget.
While Pokémon GO’s biggest attraction is exploration, a thing that might be risky for little children to take. With adult supervision, most of the risks can be mitigated or even eliminated. Remember that as an adult, it is your responsibility to supervise. It’s your responsibility to stop your child if they are making risky decisions for themselves.
