Earlier in July, Indonesia was among the first countries to impose restrictions on playing Pokémon Go when it ordered police and military personnel to abstain from catching ’em all while on duty.
Now the Indonesian government is also considering banning Pokémon Go at schools, claiming the smash-hit game is damaging children’s minds and making them “lazy”, the IBT reports.
The country’s minister of women’s empowerment and child protection Yohana Yembise said she’s working on a ministerial decree that will prohibit children from playing the game at schools, allowing them to focus on their studies instead. However, it is not yet clear when or how the order will be implemented.
Yembise further invited parents to encourage their children to stay away from the game in their spare time.
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While Indonesian authorities are certainly right to be worried about children focusing on Pokémon Go rather than their studies, banning the game hardly seems like a viable solution. Especially when there’s always gonna be a new game to distract children from their lessons.
Instead of restricting students from playing games, the Indonesian government should take a lesson from this awesome math teacher and make studying entertaining again – and making Pokémon Go an integral part of the process might just be the solution.
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