Prohibits sex offenders from playing augmented reality games

4 Co-sponsors

• Diane J. Savino
• Tony Avella
• David Carlucci
• David J. Valesky

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to prohibiting sex offenders from playing augmented reality games

Purpose

This bill will create a new class of digital games in the penal law, and will prevent sex offenders under supervision pursuant to penal law 65.10 from playing such games.

Summary of provisions

Section 1: Adds accessing an augmented reality game to the activities which sex offenders are prohibiting from engaging in when under a sentence of probation or conditional discharge. Defines augmented reality games.

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 sex offenders are not explicitly prohibited from accessing them while on probation or conditional discharge.

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. It also discovered at least one instance where a known sex offender was playing the game with a child in public.

Certain sex offenders, while on probation or conditional discharge, are prohibited from engaging in certain high-risk activities that could endanger youth or encourage the sex offender's illegal behavior. These activities include accessing social networking websites, accessing pornographic material, etc. The usage of augmented reality games, as they become more popular, could expose these dangerous sex offenders to children as both the children and sex offenders are encouraged to congregate at the same locations in the game and interact in the real-world while playing the game. If a sex offender is prevented from accessing a social networking website, where they do not have direct physical access to children, they should certainly be prevented from playing these augmented reality games, where they inevitably will come in close proximity to children.

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.