Pika-Who? How Pokémon Go Confused the Canadian Military
In July 2016, out of nowhere, civilians started driving onto Canadian military bases at odd hours and wandering onto government property distracted by their cell phone screens. Military officials did not know what to make of it. They later discovered that it was the new launched game that brought the people into such places. The game was and still is called Pokémon Go and immediately after the launching, it went up to the top of the download charts. Within weeks, millions of people were chasing the digital animated creatures all over the world and going places they should not have gone.
Pokémon Go, a game that fuses digital technology with the physical world, allows players to use their smartphones to find Pokéballs, Pokémon gyms and Pokémon, the exotic monsters. The app assured its users that "Pokémon can be found in every corner of the Earth." That statement quickly caused problems. In search of digital animated creatures users went to areas they should not have gone including memorials, cemeteries or military bases. There were even injuries and fatalities connected to the game.
In 2019, Canadian military officials shared private military documents with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News Network (CBC News) that showed how the military, both curious and confused, reacted to the wildly popular game. Major Jeff Monaghan wrote in an email: "Please advise the Commissionaires that apparently Fort Frontenac (a military fort in Ontario) is both a Pokégym and a Pokéstop. I will be completely honest that I have no idea what that is." A security expert David Levenick wrote in another email: "We almost had to hire a 12-year-old to help us out with this."
An example of such suspicious activities that the officers had to deal with can be these two short stories. A woman was found on a military base as three children with her climbed on tanks while she was playing Pokémon Go. Another man was stopped on a military base while he was also using the app and told officials that he was trying to get more points than his children so he could beat them in the game. Both incidents seem bit absurd to me, thus I would recommend those people to spend less time with their phones and also, to think before they act!
SOURCES: THE BBC NEWS
WRITTEN BY MAGDA ROUTOVÁ