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Title of bill
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to augmented reality games
Purpose
This bill will create a new class of digital games in the general business law, and will ensure that in-game objectives are not located near sex offenders' residences.
Summary of provisions
Section 1: Defines augmented reality games, developers, and associated in-game objectives.
Mandates that augmented reality game developers shall not cause or allow any in-game objectives to be located within a one hundred foot radius of any registered sex offender's home (for addresses that are listed on the Division of Criminal Justice Service's website). Augmented reality game developers must update their in-game location exclusions at least once per month.
Empowers the attorney general enforce this section via civil action or proceeding. The attorney general may issue a daily fine of up to one hundred dollars for each in-game location that is non-conforming.
Section 2: The act shall take effect 60 days after it becomes law.
Existing law
Under current law, augmented reality games are not defined, and no such requirements are placed on augmented reality game developers.
Justification
Augmented reality games are a new class of games that allow users to engage in scenarios that combine elements of the real world with fictional elements which are part of the game. These games are often played on smartphones and tablets, as they usually require the user to move around from place to place to satisfy certain in-game objectives.
Some of these games, such as the massively popular "Pokemon GO" are like modern scavenger hunts. They send a user outside his/her home to real-world locations in order to find rare characters/items to gain more power within the game. Pokemon GO is the first massively popular augmented reality game, and within less than a month of its publishing, has garnered 30 million downloads between the iOS and Google Play app stores.
However, because both children and adults are encouraged to play these games, (Pokemon GO lists its target audience as all those over ten years of age), there are inherent risks for unsupervised children. The IDC has conducted an investigation that has revealed valuable in-game objectives on the property of sex offenders' residences. Due to the popularity of this emerging game type, and its ability to direct children to certain locations to reach their goals in the game, it is necessary to ensure that these augmented reality games are as safe as possible. This legislation will keep in-game objectives away from the homes of sex offenders, thus eliminating the possibility that the game will encourage children to play at or near a sex offender's residence.
Legislative history
This is a new bill. FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
None.
Local fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.