THE end of the world is upon us (again): Pokémon Go has landed and the world will never be the same again.

The game was released in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States on July 6 and over here on July 13 and already the internet is rife with reports of crimes and accidents linked to its use.

Reports of distracted gamers being relieved of their mobile phones while playing, robbers enticing players to remote locations and paedophiles using it to stalk children. And in their hunt for cute furry prey, players are entering new and dangerous locations without any attention to their surroundings, walking into trees, oncoming traffic and falling into ditches. Social media is awash with reports of various body parts suffering from sprains, twists, fractures, bruises and breaks… On the other hand, protagonists point to the fact that rather than sit at home glued to a computer or TV screen, players are out and about, taking exercise and discovering new places. Time to lock up your children’s devices? Or encourage them to get off their backsides and search for a Jigglypuff…?

Ever since the Viennese Waltz hit the dance halls in the 1890’s, the latest form of popular mass entertainment has attracted the opprobrium of society’s self-appointed moral guardians.

The 20th century is littered with inventions and innovations which at the time were claimed to be calamitous, would corrupt impressionable young minds and bring society to its knees: cinema, radio, talking pictures, rock and roll, television, so called ‘video nasties’ and computer games have each in their turn caused moral panics as critics decried their devastating effect on impressionable young minds.

The fear that the masses might use radio stations to promote sedition and revolution was one of the reasons a monopoly was awarded to the British Broadcasting Company in 1922.

Spurious (and usually entirely specious) research evidence was often produced to justify claims that Armageddon was nigh. But now that the internet has made experts of us all and professional expertise has been popularly decried, there is no need to gather evidence. We know what we know - Google will confirm it for us.

So here’s my confident prediction.

(And I write this having not yet played the game or been lured into distraction or danger by it.) We will soon read of a death attributed to the game. There will be calls for it to be banned; others will rally to its defence.

The report of the death will turn out to be exaggerated; the noise, critics and enthusiasts will fade away; Nintendo shares will return to previous levels.

Another craze will replace it.

Meanwhile, happy hunting….