Can we block Pokémon Go on LDSAccess?

This is a big temptation for our youth, and a major distraction from the spirit. Can we block this?

Everything is on a phone is distracting, or can be. Not to be negative, but if we start creating a list it will quickly grow exponentally. I have concerns with some blocked apps, but I assume some thought went into the reasoning so I don't say anything.
However, it would be great if some things could be limited even more during church hours, and open during the rest of the week. It is tough to download a youth video to site when everyone is using it for other things.

Just few additional side notes. Unlike many other games this is a mobile game. You have to go to locations. The locations in this game were set in Ingress, another game. They accepted all churches as game locations that were turned into them, So many church locations are pokestops. One downside to blocking is the fact that it is a mobile game, so you need internet when you go out and play. Nearly all players will have a data plan phone, so they will play regardless of if you block it. You will not solve the distraction by cutting wifi. However, If it starts using a lot of bandwidth and interfering regular use, that is a problem that would need to be looked into.

My history lurking and reading in the forum it seems that blocking a site is done when it takes a lot of bandwidth at the church, and if it is incompatible with the morals of the church. (not judging this game or other web sites, just a general comment that may or may not be true) I pulled some data from a few websites, where people tracking data use for a month while they were playing the beta (testing) version. They used about 20 megs, a fraction of what facebook uses. and way less with facebooks ads and videos.

Note a recent statement from the church on gaming at churches. It does not mean we have to give everyone access to game (the topic in this thread), but how we should treat those visitors.
https://www.lds.org/church/news/popular ... s?lang=eng

I've noticed it's blocked at my building. The game can't connect when I'm on LDSAccess, but connects fine elsewhere (or without Wi-Fi).

Don't know if that was a local decision, or a new church policy.

Honestly, if the decision was made because they think it'll be less of a distraction, I think the decision was misguided. Very few people are playing the game on Wi-Fi-only devices, since that would limit the gameplay to practically unplayable. Anyone who wants to play at church will just turn off Wi-Fi and play using their cell connection.

If the church wants to discourage playing, they could request from Niantic to have Pokéstops removed from church, but I also think that would be misguided. I've seen several local Protestant churches successfully using their Pokéstops as a proselyting tool.

DrJ1234 wrote:Don't know if that was a local decision, or a new church policy.

Local leaders have no control.

DrJ1234 wrote:Honestly, if the decision was made because they think it'll be less of a distraction, I think the decision was misguided.

The decision was probably made based on how the site was categorized by the filters, or by the amount of bandwidth being used. The network is there to build the church, not to play games. It's less about changing behavior and more about ensuring the network can carry out it's primary purpose.

There is a committee that is watching for apps that are used in the meetinghouses, when they discover that apps are used in meetinghouses they block them. oh, except facebook.

Is there a LDS version of Pokémon Go?

No, but why don't you check out this app.

Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... l&hl=en_US

Apple
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tree-of-l ... 1487993258

seanhyte wrote:No, but why don't you check out this app.

I would love to, but it is not supported on my phone. And I have only spoken with one person in my ward who has been able to successfully download it and make it work, although a whole lot have downloaded the app and not been able to make it work.

I'm running Android 9 on a Moto g6.

Looks like it's only comparable with a few manufacturerors: Apple, Samsung, Pixel, Huawei, Xiaomi, and OnePlus.

One issue is personal VPNs, ads have been running all over that tout them as ways to beat filtering. If we can get at least a good number, and watch for new ones as others are blocked, we can cut down on this.

Another issue is some places may be just using the 'Managed' setting on Technology Manager, this needs to be bumped up to the next level to ensure that apps do not update, any already known personal VPNs are blocked, and games that require Internet access are blocked.

What brought me here today (had not been in a while) was a comment to a post on Facebook about the new network that came from the Salt Lake area that indicated people were bumming off the higher speed wifi to watch movies online in the parking lot on their devices, that points mainly to where the Technology Manager setting was only set to Managed and not to at least that next level.

My stake does it right. Hats off to Meetinghouse Tech on that work involving filtering, I am enjoying a much better experience when starting and using my devices at the meetinghouse. My device now won't auto-update or autoload non-essential apps thus making both startup and throughput in Church apps faster. I power down before going to the meetinghouse and power up once there or on Sunday, just after the intermediate music and then am ready to use during the second hour.