The New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, has directed state authorities to prevent nearly 3,000 registered sex offenders now on parole from playing Pokémon Go, in an effort to safeguard children who play.

The state’s department of corrections and community services is making it a condition of supervised release from state prison for all sex offenders. State officials recommended that county probation offices adopt the same policy.

“Protecting New York’s children is priority number one and as technology evolves, we must ensure these advances don’t become new avenues for dangerous predators to prey on new victims,” Cuomo said.

“These actions will provide safeguards for the players of these augmented reality games and help take one more tool away from those seeking to do harm to our children.”

The Democratic governor has also sent a letter to the software developer Niantic requesting help prohibiting sexual predators from playing the online game, in which players roam through the physical world searching for virtual Pokémon creatures.

Niantic did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

New York law requires registered sex offenders to keep current home addresses, email accounts, screen names and other internet identifiers with the division of criminal justice services, which maintains the publicly accessible online registry. The division shares that information with about 40 social media businesses and has contacted Niantic in an effort to work with that company, spokeswoman Janine Kava said.

The division has sent about 52,000 records related to 18,544 sex offenders since 2008, records that have been used to remove names from social media sites, according to the governor’s office.

The state senator Jeff Klein, a Democrat who raised similar concerns last week, said New York already prohibited high-level offenders on parole from using social media. He proposed requiring game manufacturers take steps to ensure the virtual Pokémon creatures don’t pop up near offenders’ homes.

The game attracted 21 million active US users within less than two weeks of its launch in July, leading to warnings about certain hazards. A feature of the game that allows users to lure characters or players for a fee to specific locations appears to have the potential to be abused by predators, Cuomo said.

The game has been blamed for an illegal border crossing from Canada to the US, prompted a US senator to question the game’s maker over privacy concerns, and led to a series of robberies and injures.

The game may also pose special risks to children as it encourages players to explore physical locations to win points.

On its website, Niantic says users must comply with age restrictions and applicable laws to play its games.

“You may use the services only if you are 13 years of age or older and capable of forming a binding contract and are not barred from using the services under applicable law,” it says.