The latest craze on the global street, one that has intrigued nearly every kid with a cell phone in Israel who’s able to understand the concept of virtual reality, has also become another item on the “off limits” list for IDF soldiers.
The wildly popular Pokemon Go has engaged the attention of much of the United States and quite a bit of Israel. It projects small virtual reality figures into the scenery before the eyes of users when they look through the camera screens of their smartphones.
The object of the game is to follow a digital map to catch these creatures that appear on the screen.
Pokemon Go players have been roaming streets, buildings and venues all over the world to hunt down creatures everywhere, including in some places they never should be entering.
There have been numerous cases of Pokemon Go players getting hurt because they were playing the game without paying attention to their surroundings. There’s even been at least one case of a player literally walking off a cliff while playing the game.
The New York Legislature has just passed a new measure prohibiting registered sex offenders from downloading the app and playing the game, in fact, due to the risks they pose to the young players they might lure into their net.
Many in the ranks of Israel’s military, particularly those in the lower ranks, are young — teenager young — and deeply attracted to this interesting new game. Israel has a mandatory draft at age 18.
IDF soldiers were warned this month by the top command not to play the game on base, however. In a directive to both soldiers and officers, the army noted that the game uses both a camera and GPS, which can leak sensitive military information about the bases.
An IDF soldier who spoke exclusively with JewishPress.com on condition of anonymity said, “The minute it came out, they said we can’t play the game on base, we can’t use the camera, or the GPS, or the game itself. You cannot open the app on base.”
The soldier added that at this point military personnel are not being banned from having the “app” on their smartphones, but are warned not to play on the base.
Has anyone been caught disregarding the orders?
“No, not that I know of. The dangers of this one are pretty obvious.”