While the new must-have mobile app Pokemon Go gets people outside and moving, there are concerns that the game’s location and mapping features could lure players — especially young children and unsuspecting teens — into danger.

Using smartphones, players capture, train and battle virtual Pokemon — Pikachu, Blastoise, Charizard and hundreds more — who randomly appear in the real world.

Players throw out PokeBalls to catch the digital creatures at PokeStops, then train them at PokeGyms to take on other players. Stops and gyms generally are located at public places like schools, parks, libraries and churches.

But some PokeStop and PokeGym locations may not be safe, especially when Pokemon creatures pop up near the homes or workplaces of convicted sex offenders who’ve committed crimes against children and those found guilty of possessing child pornography.

Pokemon Go developer Niantic Inc. offers no provision to remove these locations from the game. Even if they did, many sex offenders fail to update their registered addresses when they move or change job locations. Read more…