EDITOR'S NOTES: Pokemon, sex offenders; they’re all out there

By David Kennard

dkennard@journalscene.com

More than 80 sex offenders live or work within a 2-mile radius of my office.

There also are about 100 Pokemon Go “stops” in that same area.

Curious, I searched the South Carolina sex offender list, which shows me all the registered sex offenders within a 1-, 2-, or 3-mile radius of any given address. You can find the same list at scor.sled.sc.gov.

Next I went to www.pokemongomap.info/ and searched for all the Pokemon Go “PokeStops” and Pokemon Gym locations.

I took one map and overlaid it on top of the other. Wow.

In case you’ve been living under a log, Pokemon Go is an electronic game that people of all ages, but mostly children and middle-aged men, play on their electronic hand-held devices – smart phones and tablets.

The game brings up a map on your phone that shows local streets and landmarks. As you walk around town you discover electronic images that are superimposed on the map. These cartoon monsters, or Pokemon, are then collected as you play the game. The idea is that as you walk around, you run into other Pokemon players and “battle” with your collected creatures at designated spots on the map labeled “gyms.”

The game has been wildly successful for game-maker Nintendo. It’s creative and has motivated electronic game fans to get off the couch and into the “real-ish world.”

You’ve probably seen people playing the game but didn’t know what you were seeing. They are the zombie-like people staring at their screens as they walk around town. You’ll know you’ve found a Poke player when you see them stop, turn one direction or the other, wait, then celebrate in some way.

What’s happening is they are using their phone’s GPS capabilities to find the many Pokemon characters that appear on their phones’ map. When they locate one they stop to poke it on their phone and then using their thumb toss “Pokeballs” at the creature in an effort to collect them.

The problem is the only way to get more Pokeballs – yes that’s the name – is to wander over to a PokeStop and collect a few. PokeStops are all over the place: parks, businesses, museums, sex offenders’ homes. Wait, what?

That’s right.

Have a look at Journal Scene reporter Jenna-Ley Harrison’s story in today’s edition.

Police are actually warning parents and children to be careful where their Pokemon Go games lead them.

“We are having an influx of people playing…in our parks and making their way into businesses and what not, and that’s fine, but we just need them to be aware of their surroundings, who’s playing,” said Summerville Capt. Doug Wright.

Remember when your parents told you not to play in the street?

Long before the Pokemon and Pokeball phenomenon, my younger brother and I had just as much enthusiasm for whiffle ball. Most of our elaborate games lasted for hours and drew neighborhood kids from all over to our front yard.

We had more than one close call chasing whiffle balls into the street. Luckily no one ever got hurt. The nice thing about whiffle ball was that it kept us relatively close to home and out of the yards of dangerous people.

Like any new game or technology, parents would be wise to exercise some discretion when allowing their youngsters to wander around with their faces buried in their phones looking for Pokemon monsters – because real life monsters aren’t too far away.

David Kennard, a Level 8 Pokemon Go player, is the executive editor of Summerville Communications, which publishes the Berkeley Independent, Goose Creek Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene. Contact him at dkennard@journalscene.com or 843-873-9424. Follow him on Twitter @davidbkennard.