The French education minister calls for rare Pokemon GO creatures to be banned in schools, suggesting that they could attract non-students who pose a threat.

While Pokémon GO may offer plenty of fun for players who want to put together a troop of Rattatas or an entire patrol of Pidgeys, for many, the aim of the hugely popular augmented-reality game is to catch ‘em all, rare Pokemon included. Some of the rarest finds in the game include Pinsir, Lickitung and Machop with players resorting to Pokemon GO rare catching guides and hoping that they’ll stumble upon the rare creatures and complete their collections. But unfortunately for those who play the game in France, catching rare Pokemon may be about to get that much harder.

Evidently, France’s education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem wants rare Pokemon to be banned from the country’s schools. Vallud-Beklacem says that she intends to meet with Niantic, the developer of Pokemon GO, in order to discuss the potential dangers that having rare Pokemon in schools could lead to. The minister plans to explain that the augmented-reality game could lead to non-students going into schools, posing a security risk to students, if they feel that there’s a chance to capture one of the rarely seen virtual creatures.

While many French students will be disappointed with Vallaud-Belkacem’s attempts to ban rare Pokemon from their schools,  many will point out how the appearance of rare Pokemon has actually posed a risk to players and non-players alike. For example, a rare Pokemon appearance caused a stampede in Central Park, with thousands flocking to the New York City location in order to capture a Vaporeon. A recent incident also saw thousands of Pokemon GO players in Taiwan gather just to catch a Snorlax. Not only could a similar thing be incredibly distracting for students, but, as the education minister noted, it could also be dangerous.

At this point, Niantic has not commented on Vallaud-Belkacem’s concerns, though it should be noted that Niantic previously stated that it would be more careful with Pokemon GO gym and Pokestop placement in future to avoid putting the locations in places such as war memorials. Moreover, the mayor of a small town in France also called for Pokemon GO to be banned from the town entirely, so perhaps the growing concerns in the country regarding the mobile game may force Niantic’s hand and lead the company to put these bans and rare Pokemon removals in place.

Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS mobile devices.

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Source: The Seattle Times