The use of the augmented reality game Pokemon Go has been banned from Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former Khmer Rouge torture centre and prison in Phnom Penh, after players entered the site hunting for the virtual cartoon characters, The Straits Times reports. The ban has been extended to other zones near the memorial, which include a number of sites known as the ‘Killing Fields’ where over a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979.
Pokemon Go was made available in Cambodia on Saturday 6 August, the same date as in Thailand, where plans to place game restrictions at the Royal Palace grounds, hospitals and Buddhist temples have been announced. Meanwhile in Japan, four disaster-hit prefectures are hoping to use the game frenzy to revive tourism, which have been plummeting after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and two further powerful quakes in April, The Japan Times reports. The prefectures are currently speaking with the Japanese unit of U.S. game developer Niantic Inc. to develop more ‘Pokestops’ (virtual markers where players pick up supplies) and ‘gyms’ (where Pokemon teams battle it out for supremacy).
11 August 2016.
