Pokemon Go players furious as game forces them toward kids playgrounds

Pokemon Go players are getting fed up with their game asking them to scan Pokestops near areas where young kids frequent.

Pokestops are an invaluable part of Pokemon Go’s playing experience, as they give players resources like items, Pokemon Eggs, and plenty of other helpful rewards.

However, because Pokestops are often linked to real-world locations and landmarks, this can sometimes unintentionally lead to situations where players draw suspicion from others thanks to scanning these areas with their phones.

Now, some Pokemon Go trainers are pleading with Niantic to stop putting Pokestops in locations where players could draw unintentional suspicions, like schoolyards and kids’ playgrounds.

Pokemon Go trainers want Pokestop location changes

A post on the Pokemon Go subreddit gained a lot of traction among the community after one user named National_Edges made a post titled “Dear PokemonGo, I (35m) would like you to please stop asking me to scan playgrounds.”

They go on to explain that “It’s really not a good look to walk around filming kids playing in a playground. Not saying I’ve never done it for the poffin but come on!”

The post received over 4,800 upvotes from other trainers alongside plenty of replies that agreed that scanning certain Pokestops made them feel very uncomfortable. “Also banks. It keeps asking me to scan a bank. That won’t look sketchy at all,” said another player.

Another trainer offered an experience they had in a similar situation and said, “I don’t scan Pokestops specifically because I had an incident where a man accused me of filming him while I battled a gym. He was aggressive and was approaching me.”

Dear PokemonGo, I (35m) would like you to please stop asking me to scan playgrounds from pokemongo

While many trainers felt similar to the original poster, other fans noted that trainers don’t have to scan the landmark precisely to complete the scan. “You can walk away once you start scanning… I just start scanning, have the camera face the ground so the screens up… It completes just fine.”

While this is true, some fans felt the fact that they were getting asked to film certain areas in public was too much to begin with. According to National_Edges, “I know a lot of people are suggesting that I just film the ground but it is problematic to be asked to film a playground where minors are expected to play. This is the real issue.”

Whether or not Niantic will make changes to Pokestop scanning in the future remains to be seen, but considering it’s technically an opt-in feature, it’s likely to stay as it is now.