Is Nintendo Safe (from being sued successfully)?

[Fei-Hung]

archer9234 said:

Fei-Hung said:
I think there are some genuine things to take into consideration:

1) many countries have a form of child safeguarding policies and laws;

2) logic isn't what always wins in courts. Sometimes it is emotions that win the day especially if a jury gets to decide;

3) it can be argued that warnings aren't sufficient and more should have been done since the game encourages you to explore beyond your home;

4) it can be argued that the app allows you to harass people by attracting Pokemon to their home / business and therfore cause a disturbance;

I personally think it's a good thing Nintendo are distancing themselves from the app as much as they can. It might be partially due to some of the things which have happened and at least now they can say they are not responsible and have pointed it out on several occasions.

1. The game was released in those countries. So shouldn't there be a check system in place. To see if the app abids by these rules, to begin with.

2. You're right. But this doesn't really have anything going for it. Most, if not all the problems are caused by the person themselves. Or lack of supervision/teaching, by parents.

3. Should their be an unskippable police warning, at the start of the game loading?

4. A person's doing that. Not the creator. Telemarketers still exsist. And they should be banned. How would this be fixed? You'd have to remove the function completly.

naruball said:

What do you do for a living? Because it appears to me that you're using common sense and things in court are way more complicated than that. Just because something sounds BS to you, doesn't mean that the legal system will treat it that way.

I didn't say that. The court will treat the matter normally. But once all the complaints are shown as really people doing it to themselves. Or the lack of parental care. How many warnings do people need to be made? Till stupidity finally gets shown. The first thing I ever said about Pokemon Go. When it got announced. "I wonder how many people will go into the street. Or go into bad areas. Because people go into polls with normal texting, a lot.

XanderXT said:

You don't know the full context of that story, do you?

I just read it. Mcdonalds putting the coffe that high, is stupid. Fine them for that. But I'd also fault the people too. Why aren't you putting the coffe on top of your dashboard? If it's curved. I'd just put it on the floor, outside the car. I'd wouldn't want it to spill and ruin something in the car. I'd never put it in my lap. With something that's hot. Regardless if it can burn me, or not.

1. I can't speak on behalf of every country, but in the UK the responsibility is put on the party / parties who have ownership and or control of the entity in question.

 

E.g. If a community centre is renting a room to a grass root organisation and a kid ends up getting touched by a volunteer there, the volunteer, the grassroots organisation and the community centre will be put under scrutiny. It might even go as far as the city council and local authority funders. In fact in my city, the local authority ended up cleaning house when local cases went wrong.

 

An argument can be made that Nintendo being the bigger entity had more responsibility than others.

 

 

2) as pointed out earlier, you are right, but again, certain laws puts onus on the people responsible for the app as they have essentially created something that will create cause and effect. E.g. You make a gun but you must advise by laws as to where you sell it, how you sell it, who you sell it to, how many you can sell etc.

 

There can be an argument made that the app shouldn't have been as accessible to kids as it makes them vulnerable. As stupid as parents and kids might be, they will be seen as victims. 

 

 

3) I think it should have a cost attached of about 99p. This would mean you have to be 18 to purchase it. That would solve a lot. 

 

I think the game should have a warning screen asking you to go over a safety section that would list a bunch things. 

 

4) you are correct, however, there are laws that telemarketers must obide and it's easier these days to avoid them. The problem here is there is nothing stopping people abusing the app legally or via the app itself. 

 

Let's say you have a baby, ate working long shifts, your partner is recovering and suddenly a thousand people them up outside your house at 2am and won't leave. When you ask them to leave some start arguing with you and making more noise. You call the police and eventually things sort themselves out at 3-4am.

 

The next day it happens again as some people don't like you and use the app maliciously. 

 

As a new parent, some would be pissed that an app exists that allows people to do this. There is no way of opting out and blacklisting your address.