Children playing Pokemon Go are being led close to the homes of child abusers, study finds

New legislation is being proposed to protect people playing augmented reality games

New legislation could remove sex offender locations from augmented reality games (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Children in the US are being led to within yards of child abusers’ houses while playing the game Pokémon Go, in what was described by politicians as a "very dangerous" downside of the app.

An investigation by the staff of New York State senators Jeffrey Klein and Diane Savino compared the addresses of 100 known child sex offenders with popular locations on the app – and found a disturbing match-up.

Some 57 Pokémon characters were available to collect within half a block of known paedophiles' homes, they found.

“When we open the door to technology, in many cases it’s very, very good, but we always have to be very, very concerned about the potential downside,” Mr Klein said at a news conference, according to the New York Times.

“And I think this is certainly a very dangerous potential downside.”

His comments come as several pieces of new legislation are planned to be introduced in the coming weeks by the state senators that would require any games using augmented reality – such as Pokémon Go – to make sure they are not leading users to locations where registered sex offenders live.

This would include removing objects of interest in the game – in this case Pokémon – or places of interest from the areas close to the homes of paedophiles.

The legislation would also block sex offenders from being able to access and use augmented reality games, so that they are not able to endanger anyone else playing them.