The City Council of Des Moines, Iowa, US is trying to opt out of Pokemon Go. This means that if they succeed, the residents will be restricted from accessing the game. Jeremy Nutting, who is heading the department is looking to remove the game from the city, despite the fact that technically, this can’t be done because the game is based on map data.
The city council had a meeting especially for hordes of teenagers and older people walking around the city doing nothing but looking down at their phones. This created issues like clustered crowding, littering, illegal parking, etc.
After and at-length discussion about the impact of Pokemon Go on the youth, the council unanimously decided to act on it. The council came to a conclusion that at least public places should be banned from acting as the premises of the game. However, this is a virtual/augmented reality game, which bears no connection to the real world. While the concerns of the council may be legitimate, there is nothing that such a regulatory authority can do about it, unless it decides to ban people from walking with their mobile phones in their hands. The crown sometimes gets obtrusive. Even banning the game will not be a solution, as all tech enthusiasts would say that there is always a way to bypass a ban.
Recently a similar interest arose in the mind of a French town Mayor who wants to ban the game. It is highly likely that the request will be dismissed because the expanse of the area is very large and it covers even schools and parks.
This school of thought might create problems for the upcoming technologies that are mostly based on virtual and augmented reality. This seems like a rise of a sect ready to obstruct what is perceived as development by most in this century. However, the concerns of a socially obtuse society on the rise are particularly legitimate and affect development in certain ways that may not seem relevant at times. However, they do affect the mental health.
