Pokémon Go is good for children because it brings them outdoors

Pokémon Go is a virtual reality based game that has taken the world by storm - it encourages the players to go outdoors and walk, run and discover the old-fashioned joy of playing outside. As a mother Dr Margaret McCartney, a GP, has said - this mobile phone-based virtual reality game can help make children fitter by getting them out of the house and helps to combat depression, obesity and diabetes.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 10 August 2016.

Dr Margaret McCartney, writing in the British Medical Journal, has expressed her opinion that Pokemon Go craze has led to the streets around her home becoming a ‘reclaimed playground in which to have some interconnected fun’. She has explained in the app, players hunt virtual creatures in train stations, parks and other real-life locations and, such hunting encourages walking.
Unfortunately, it is not marketed as a health app but as a video game, hence, it should reach out to an audience that conventional health apps may miss. She accompanies her eight-year-old son ‘for miles’ as he plays Pokemon Go and the game may help children to play outside again.
However, caution must be exercised because the game draws the players to real places, making it easy for criminals to spot congregation points. There have been reports that teenagers in London were robbed of their phones at gunpoint and American players have been involved in real shootouts.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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