Pokemon Go Raids Could Pose Risk To Kids According To Child Safety Website

A service geared towards protecting children who engage in online activities through games and other programs is warning parents that the new raids in Pokemon Go may be problematic for children.

The organization known as Net Aware, a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children group, recently published a post to warn parents and other adults about the dangers that raids might pose to children playing Pokemon Go. With these new raids that become much easier to complete when working together, up to 20 different players can participate in a group as a group of strangers attempt to take down a high-level Pokemon.

Meeting up with strangers while playing Pokemon Go is nothing new; in fact, it's one of the things that made the game so popular in the beginning with friends and strangers helping each other to find rare Pokemon. The new raids pose a bit of a different scenario though as you could quite easily play Pokemon Go by yourself before and still could do so with the raids now, but this is one of the first features that directly promotes teamwork between individuals.

Within their cautionary post, Net Aware warns of the typical stranger danger issues that could be associated with Pokemon Go such as being aware of your surrounding while still being involved in the game, a warning that's been pushed by the game itself since the beginning. It adds some guidelines specific to the raids such as the fact that raids will make face-to-face meetings more likely, something that younger players and their parents should be aware of. It also makes a valid point about the feature that lets players know when raids are occurring nearby. With the notification being pushed to players within a certain area, multiple players will receive the announcement and will likely head towards the raid to result in larger gatherings.

Several of the additional tips given by Net Aware could easily be applicable to Pokemon Go and many other online services, the full set of guidelines seen here.

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