Pokemon GO: why psychologists forbid this game to children

A new game, Pokemon GO, which has won millions of fans around the world today, is now available in Russia. Even if it’s hard for adults to resist cute pocket monsters, what can we say about children! Can the characters of the popular game be called harmless? What danger does the game pose for the younger generation, in which two worlds merged together - real and virtual? Let's hear the opinion of a child psychologist on this subject.

Not even 15 years have passed since the Japanese series about Pokemon was popular, so loved by children at that time. After watching it, the students became fans of these monsters - posters, games? chips and stickers with images of favorite heroes were literally swept away from store shelves.

Now, in 2016, Pokemon are once again conquering the world, but now they have become the heroes of the popular game Pokemon GO. Surprisingly, its adherents are not only children, but also adults - people with different social status and level of education.

In the media more and more often there are notes about children who, while searching for a Pokemon, were on the roadway, climbed to a height, got into a construction site, got lost in the city, carried away by the game. Although the Ministry of Emergencies and Roskomnadzor warns of the dangers of the game, the number of children who catch Pokemon is growing every day.

Pokemon - who are they?

Literally, the word "Pokemon" translates as "pocket monster." These are cute animals with superpowers. Those who played a similar game in the past should have achieved these goals:

• collect all the pokemon;
• develop their abilities by training characters.

In the old game, the winner was the one who gathered an entire army of monsters, honed their skills and tamed them. Having become the lord of Pokemon, the player, as it were, adopted their abilities, while at the same time feeling power and strength. Here you can see the subtle psychological influence on the adherents of the game, thanks to which the children became addicted to it.

Features of the new Pokemon GO game

A feature of the modern game is that two worlds literally intersect in it - real and virtual. To find his pocket monster, the player must roam the streets, looking at the screen of a tablet or smartphone and catch a Pokemon. The search is conducted in reality, and the window into the virtual dimension is a tablet. That is why people who move around the street, not taking their eyes off the screens of smartphones, at the risk of falling, getting hit by a car and getting injured, began to meet more and more often. These strange actions are prompted by the goal - to find their Pokemon.

Having installed a free application on your smartphone, you need to register, and the game will require access to the resources of your phone (camera, geolocation, photo album and others) - only under this condition you can play. Then the system sends a message indicating the object in the real world where the virtual Pokemon is located. You can see it using the same smartphone. Well and so on.

There are all the classic elements of an addictive virtual game (excitement, competition, development, diversity), while there is also a social element - players can very well meet in reality.

How attractive are Pokémon in the eyes of children?

When it comes to certain pocket monsters, the idea immediately arises of something unpleasant and creepy. However, those who are far from the modern game think so. The developers gave the characters a pretty appearance and gave them funny names. That's why kids like Pokémon so much.. Let's get to know them better.

• Pikachu is a monster that looks like a mouse, which has the ability to accumulate an electric charge, concentrated in the cheeks of a Pokemon.
• Meowth is a cat monster.
• Sloupok - pokemonchik pink, resembling a slow hippo.
• Bulbasaur - on its back there is a bulb.
• Charmander is a Pokemon with a tail indicator in the form of a flame. When the monster loses power, the flame fades.
• Squirtle - this is the name of the turtle, which over time will turn into a ninja.
• Chancy is a cute and kind plump character with an egg that helps him with an attack.
• Jugliouff is a very vulnerable singing monster.
• Snorlax is a lazy pokemon resembling a teddy bear, his favorite thing is to sleep and eat.

These are far from all Pokémon, but even the first glance perfectly demonstrates the apparent sweetness of these heroes.

Already at the first meeting, the monsters do not seem evil and unpleasant, they cause a desire to make friends, because by their qualities they are similar to the people we met in life. Sometimes they remind us. However, constant communication with their Pokemon allows them to turn into experienced fighters over time. Is this game really safe?

What is the danger of the game Pokemon GO?

According to psychologists, this game is a danger to children. But what is it?

1. The main problem that psychologists especially highlight is the effect on the child’s emerging perception of the real world. In the game, he is considered only through the prism of virtuality. The merging of the two worlds in Pokemon GO can erase the boundaries between the present and the invention in children's consciousness, because their psyche is very vulnerable. The development of the child’s mental abilities directly depends on the correct perception of the surrounding world.
2. There is a risk of dependence on the game process, because in order to achieve results in the game Pokemon you need to constantly look for, catch, educate, you need to take care of your Pokemon. Children who are fond of catching monsters lose valuable time that they could spend on homework or companionship. The spirit of competition encourages students to play even more to stand out among their comrades. As a result, a decrease in academic performance, a loss of interest in real life and activity.
3. The first stage of the game looks harmless, but what will happen next? No one knows what awaits the Pokémon, what fate the developer determined for them. Perhaps your child, already trapped in addiction, will become the master of evil and cruel characters who need to kill their own kind? Such a prospect can have detrimental effects on the child psyche.
4. With the development of attachment, a replacement of priorities arises when the favorite entertainment takes first place, and the word of the parents goes by the wayside. Is the child so cherished by the game that he is ready for it to fulfill any errand of adults? Is it normal that he is ready to make sacrifices or to obey not out of respect and love for his relatives, but for the sake of permission to continue the game?
5. The danger of injury at the time of catching Pokemon is quite high - players are forced to quickly move around the city, peering at the tablet screen, not noticing what is happening in reality. During the game process, they fall, jump out onto the road, where cars drive, collide with other passers-by, find themselves in unfamiliar places. In this sense, the game is dangerous for adults. In foreign media, there are cases when people who are concentrated on the screen picture of their gadget fell into the sewer manhole, fell under the car, crossing the road and so on. They mention cases when teenagers climbed into completely inadmissible and dangerous places, including in guarded yards, on construction sites, etc.
6. Some features of the game are available for money. What is it for children who don’t know their value, but who are eager to reach the next level faster, click on the Buy button on the screen of their smartphone? This is fraught with huge costs for parents.

PSYCHOLOGIST OFFERS PROHIBITING CHILDREN TO PLAY POKEMON GO DUE TO DEPENDENCE

Pokemon Go can be a drug addiction, so parents should prevent their children from playing it. This was reported to reporters by a clinical psychologist, a specialist in the psychology of health, Mikhail Khors.

“I would advise parents to prevent their children from playing Pokemon Go,” said M. Hors.

At the same time, the psychologist emphasized that it is guaranteed to be protected from virtual addiction only without downloading this game. “What you need to know about psychoactive substances and psychoactive objects such as a smartphone, the Internet, Pokemon and more? That all this can and is addictive. And I’m sure that almost everyone here used to drink alcohol once in their lives, but not everyone will develop addiction. Substance consumption is a test of whether addiction will develop or not, ”he stressed.

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What should parents do?

1. First of all, it’s up to you to understand the game and understand what it is - talking with a teenager it is important to speak the same language. In addition, unfounded prohibitions of the type “impossible, because I said so,” are completely ineffective. You can, of course, deprive a child of all his gadgets, but when you bought them, did you realize that this was not just a phone or an e-book?
2. So - do not want the child to play such games, do not buy him modern gadgets. But seriously - it’s important to prepare the child for possible risks, as in childhood you taught him to cross the road, remember?
3. It is certainly not worth offering to install the application, but if this has already happened, explain the safety rules.
4. Limit the time of the game, do not include it in places of high risk: when crossing the road, in public transport, in the subway, and at school, you should not, where else you think for yourself.
5. Do not allow yourself to buy bonuses in the game, or consult with you - you are a source of funds.
6. To be interested in the child’s success in the game is how you get, firstly, feedback: you will learn how much the child has “dragged on”, and where he is with his Pokémon, and, secondly, build confidence. At the same time, three things should be avoided: a mentor tone, a categorical prohibition, and excessive familiarity.

The question "what to do" here is most likely a rhetorical one. Free your children from Japanese monsters. Give them true reality. Free their minds from alien control. A child is not a puppet in the skillful hands of game developers. This is an independent person.

Rospotrebnadzor asked psychologists to check the game Pokemon Go - how do you?

Rospotrebnadzor asked psychologists and teachers to check the game for Pokemon Go mobile devices, the Interfax news agency reported with reference to the chief state sanitary doctor of Russia Anna Popova

Mostransavto CEO Alexander Zaitsev asked Pokemon Go players to comply with safety rules and not be distracted by smartphone screens at bus stops, bus stations and bus stations.Mostransavto reminded that while waiting for the bus, you cannot go onto the carriageway, and when boarding the vehicle you need to be calm and not try to enter at the moment when the doors are already closing.

In connection with the popularity of the game, Russian Railways also reminded that railway stations, platforms, railway crossings and stations are places of increased danger.

Roskomnadzor has already warned that the game has malicious versions that allow you to take control of a player’s device, steal his personal data and monitor his movements. According to the service, the criminals have already started using Pokemon Go: they place Lure Modules, which increase the chances of Pokémon appearing in a certain place and arrange ambushes there.

State Duma deputy from the Communist Party Denis Voronenkov asked the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media to completely ban the game in Russia. According to him, players can become participants in espionage or terrorist attack.

Pokemon Go is a mobile game with elements of augmented reality, the plot of which is based on the Japanese Pokémon animated series. Players must find Pokémon in the real world, train them and participate in battles with other players' Pokémon.

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